Team Exercise? Think Again
by quiet before dawn
Summary: So far, Deeks has managed to avoid NCIS team training exercises - but when Kensi convinces him that their's are different, he decides to attend: only to find that his version of "team exercise" is not what this Federal Agency has planned.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N; Hey, s'up. The name is Bre and I've recently been introduced to the series called NCIS: Los Angeles. This you've probably already known considering you wouldn't be reading this if it weren't for your love of the show. Anyways, I started writing this a couple of weeks ago and I finally finished chapter one. Needless to say I haven't written fanfiction for awhile, and so this could be an interesting journey - especially since I'm not sure how I've captured the characters. For one thing - I don't use a beta, so if there are any tenses mess ups, or grammatical error - I apologize. I also apologize for the long intervals I post this in. It takes awhile for me to write it - especially since I'm graduating high school this year, and I've got a play to memorize by the end of November. But, I will try my hardest to write when I'm not fangirling over Eric Christian Olsen, or trying to telepathically let the writers of NCIS know that Ziva and Tony's relationship is endgame.**

**That being said - I do not own NCIS: Los Angeles, if I did - Deeks would be shirtless more often, and Densi would be a ship that's already happened. Oh, and Nell and Callen would be hooking up. Seriously, I ship Nell and Callen with a passion - let's not even mention my love for Deeks and Kensi. I refer to him as Marty in my head, but when I write - he's always Deeks. Anyways. I'll warn you that Kensi and Deeks are basically together, and Nell and Callen will flirt. As for Eric? I don't leave him out - seriously, he's got his own thing with Abby. Now - let's proceed to the story.**

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><p>When Kensi Blye had told him that he was due to take part in the NCIS monthly team exercise, Marty Deeks could not help but groan. So far, he had managed to avoid participating seeing as most team exercises that he had been a part of were painfully boring and Deeks was not the kind of guy who liked the definition of "boring." Kensi however, had insisted that their training exercises weren't like most. He chose to believe her. What else was he supposed to do? He hadn't put his trust in Kensi for nothing, and it wasn't like she was going to lie to him, right? Well, maybe she would – and that's what he was worrying about as he walked through the office doors. Things were definitely too quiet around the bullpen, where there was usually some sort of debate going on. Nope. Nothing. Deeks' eyes darted around the office, still nothing. There was no sign of Eric, Nell or even Hetty. No Kensi, Sam or Callen. Where the hell was the rest of the team he was supposedly a part of?<p>

"Uh, guys?" He called out, before strolling over to his desk where he thumbed through some of the files he should have finished working on. There was still quiet all around the main part of the office, Deeks shook his head and made his way towards the one place he knew there would be someone. Or at least he hoped that someone would be there.

"I get that I'm the new guy around here, but that doesn't mean you can just tell me we've got some kind of team exercise and then just leave me hanging..." He trailed off as he caught a glance of his partner, who was shaking her head at him.

"Deeks, it's 7:30 in the morning and you're already complaining."

He shrugged, it wasn't apologetic or anything but he knew that Kensi was just teasing him. Movement from the corner of his eye caught his attention and he turned, only to see Callen push himself off of the wall where he had been leaning. Deeks glanced back at Kensi, he hadn't noticed Callen standing there when he walked into the gym, but maybe it was because he was more concerned about the fact that the entire team had decided to ditch him.

"Give him a break Kens, we all know that Sleeping Beauty here needs his rest."

It was Deeks' turn to shake his head, "that's not my fault. I blame Kensi. She told me that I had to be here at 7:00 and I was here at ... well, 7:25, but hey – you were the ones who didn't give me a place. I could have saved you those extra five minutes." He glanced around, noticing that a few of the team's members were still nowhere to be seen. "So, uh what's the deal with Hetty, Eric, Nell and Sam not being here?"

"Who says I'm not here Mister Deeks." Henrietta Lange's voice filled the somewhat quiet gym, startling Deeks. It was like she had the ability to walk through walls, and be invisible. Somehow, she always managed to creep up behind him when he wasn't paying attention. She had done this numerous times, and it never failed to scare him.

"Well, I ... uh."

"Yes, I think it's best if you stop while you're ahead." She told him, before turning to Callen. "Now, Mr. Callen, where is your partner?"

While Callen gave an apologetic shrug, Deeks shot Kensi an 'aren't you glad your partner is here on time look' to which she just raised her eyebrow. Kensi had to admit that being his partner wasn't the easiest of things, but there wasn't anyone she trusted more to have her back, especially not after the incident where he had risked his own life to pull her to safety. No. That was the moment Kensi knew she could trust him more than anyone in her life, so yes, she was glad that he was here on time and frankly, she was just glad to see him safe. Of course, no one would ever get Kensi Marie Blye to admit that. Especially not to Marty Deeks himself.

"Really though, is this a test for me? To actually see if I'd show up?" Deeks wasn't having any of this nonsense, it was technically his day off and he could have been surfing the waves. In fact, surfing the waves seemed a lot more interesting than this little gathering appeared to be. However, from the look Deeks ended up getting from Kensi – he deduced that the odds at that being true were quite swim. It seemed like a reasonable guess, and then again he wasn't actually sure if Kensi would be here on her day off, or Callen or even if Hetty would still be here. He thought about it for a second, and then shook his head slightly – trying to keep his mind focussed. "Okay, so if it wasn't a test for me then when are we going to get on with this show?"

"As soon as Mister Hanna decides to make his appearance known to the rest of us." Hetty told them before leaving the gym.

"You know, for someone who is supposed to be this highly regarded detective – you sure ask a lot of questions." Kensi told Deeks with a teasing smile. "I mean, aren't you supposed to 'detect' things and find the answers out yourself?" It was typical behaviour between the two to tease each other, Callen had told Kensi once that it was a trust thing and it had taken him and Sam almost four months to move past the phase which he liked to call "full dealt hand" which in his mind meant 'anything goes'. That included the teasing between the two. Kensi wasn't so sure that her and Deeks would work past that, it was pretty much how their partnership worked. If that teasing aspect disappeared – she wasn't sure if they would be in tune as they currently were with each other.

Callen's moved from the middle of the gym floor and Deeks can see that he's interrupted something important that Hetty was observing. "So, I decide to show up late and you two start a game of 'tag you're it' without me?" He questions, as Kensi pulls her ponytail tighter. He doesn't interfere though, especially not when Kensi's got one of those zapping knives. She's hit him with one of them before, and honestly – Deeks never planned on practicing with them again. Lately though, Callen's been teaching Kensi some moves he's learnt throughout the years, and Kensi hasn't objected to the chance to learn more martial art techniques – especially with a knife. Kensi Blye may like her gun, but she's always been a little partial to the use of a knife. In theory, any agent that was with special ops should be able to use whatever weapon is at hand – but each agent had their own preference. Deeks was a cop first, an agent second – so when it wasn't his gun that he could grab, the next best thing was his ... well, he didn't actually know what he would grab next. Somehow, he usually managed to fight off his attackers with whatever he could – he supposed it was the way his undercover mind worked.

"Damn it, G!" Deeks snaps out of his daydreaming thoughts and his eyes seek out his partner. It's a habit of his. He's been doing it for months now. If there is a sound of pain coming from Kensi, Deeks always makes sure that Kensi is fine before returning back to his work or thoughts. Maybe it's just something he's developed considering the last person he genuinely cared for was blown up, but with Kensi things are different. She's one of the few people he'd go to lengths to protect, and actually trusts.

But Callen's chuckling which tells Deeks that he hasn't seriously hurt Kensi. Not that Callen ever would, Deeks is pretty confident that Callen would be the one hurting people if Kensi ever was injured and there was someone to blame. "You're such an ass." She tells him point blank, and it makes Deeks smile. As if all three of them were linked in the mind, they turn as Nell Jones – their intelligence analyst makes her appearance.

"Morning Deeks." She smiles at him before clasping her hands together and turning towards the two standing on the mat, "Hetty wants you in Ops."

As Kensi passes him, she zaps Deeks with the knife she and Callen had been practicing with. "Kensi!" He rubs his arm where she's hit him, and she turns with a bright smile on her face.

"Come on Deeks, it's time to see how the real agents train."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N; I apologize. Really I do. It seems that Deeks is one of the easiest people to write for, and I know once I get more into the story the perspectives will change. Some will be from Eric's point of view, while others are going to be from Callen. Rarely there will be one from Sam, or Hetty – mainly because those two are really complex for me to write. However, expect there to be some from Kensi's and the majority from Deeks. Also, I'm fairly certain that these chapters are going to take me longer than these two have - mostly because I've got to think about what's going to go on. If you have any ideas on how the teams are going to work, or how they should go about training - then let me know(: **

**Read & Review. I do love feedback!**

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><p>Eric decked out in camouflage was the last thing Deeks expected to see as he walked into the Ops center. As his blue eyes stared in confusion at the blonde tech, Kensi bumped her hip lightly into his. "See, I told you that you should always expect the unexpected here." It was true. Deeks had always prided himself in being able to expect the unexpected – at least until he had started working as the LAPD Liason to the NCIS agency. He had thought being an undercover detective was always good enough, and that he would always be able to read people – but meeting this group? No, things had certainly changed his perspective of what to actually expect in this job. However, Eric in camouflage was still not registering as something one would normally see.<p>

"Hey, Eric – I didn't know you played Call of Duty in camouflage. That's what I call dedication." He couldn't help it. Things were getting too weird for Deeks to even comprehend what was going on, of course – if he had bothered to actually use his head and put it to good use as if he was trying to investigate a murder, then he could probably deduce what they were doing ... but it was too early in the morning and frankly, the whole "day off" thing was going to keep coming back to haunt him.

Eric smirked, but didn't reply as he lowered his gaze down and tapped a couple of buttons on his tablet which sent them to the big screen. Deeks frowned as he studied the layout of what looked to be a course of some sort. There were six ear pieces sitting on the desk beside Eric's keyboard, and Nell had returned to her regular position by the edge of the screen. Kensi leaned on the glass table in the middle of the room and cocked her head to the side, "what's the plan this time?" She asked Nell, who seemed pleased that someone was taking notice that they were ready to get started. Of course, if it wasn't for the realization that Sam was actually in the room – Deeks might have actually cracked a joke. There was something seriously wrong with this team. They had the ability to become invisible. It was one thing to dress the part you're playing undercover, but becoming invisible was a feat that Deeks hadn't managed to accomplish yet.

Apparently what Nell was about to say was important because Deeks felt a nudge and turned to find his partner staring at him. "Listen up, Deeks. I'm going to need you for this." It was really beginning to confuse him more. What had he gotten himself into?

"It's time for the monthly team exercise – and I'm sure you're all excited on how the teams are going to work this time." Nell smiled happily at them all, pausing briefly on Callen who had just entered the room. "Now, since Deeks has decided to join us finally – Kensi's actually going to get a fair shot in winning this. Not that you're bad at this Eric, I'm just saying that it's fair game now." Eric, Deeks noticed, was shaking his head at his tech partner but there was still a trace of a smile on his face. "Hetty's changed the course again." Callen groaned, knowing fair well how many times the course had changed since he had joined NCIS.

"Now Mister Callen, it wouldn't be fair to keep the course the same for you and your team as Mister Deeks has failed to join us on these team exercises." Hetty told him sternly, "please continue Miss Jones."

"Thank you, Hetty. So, Kensi and Marty will of course be partnered in the field as per usual. Sam, and G – and of course, Eric will be on his own now that Marty's decided to join us." Nell finished, before raising her hand to her chin thoughtfully, "and of course, I'll be observing from the tower ... here" she pointed to the screen where Deeks could make out a building that was raised above the field, "I wish you all good luck."

"Just for once Nell, I think you should train with us." Eric told her, blinking innocently at her. "You can't leave me out there on my own!"

"I agree. Nell, I think it's time that you leave the optical tower and join us in the depths of the forest." Callen spoke up, his arms crossed across his chest – his face said joking, but his eyes screamed serious. Deeks wasn't sure what training exercise required someone to be in an optical tower – but the more they talked in secrecy about it, the more interested he got in it.

"Hey, if I've gotten dragged into doing this – I think it's only fair that you get involved as well." Deeks smirked, and received a half terrified look from Nell.

"I'm perfectly fine in the optical tower ... I mean .. I – I – I am involved in the exercise ... I get to monitor all of you guys, and make sure you're safe!" Her voice was getting squeakier and squeakier as she spoke, and if it was at all possibly she seemed to be shrinking.

"I think your team has decided Miss Jones, you will be accompanying them into the field and help Mister Beale to not fail so miserably. I believe you and Mister Beale will be perfectly fine. It's all about excellent planning, if I say so myself." Hetty told Nell, and everyone in the Ops center could see that Nell was most certainly not looking forward to joining Eric in the field. "Now, Mister Callen, Miss Blye and Mister Hanna – if you could show Mister Deeks where we keep our supplies, I'll see you all on the course in an hour. We start at precisely 09:00." With that Hetty left the Ops center, leaving Nell twisting her hands nervously and Deeks anxiously awaiting information on what they were doing.

The silence was too long, and Deeks finally spoke up – "Is someone going to fill me in on what we're doing." There was a shared look between Kensi, Callen and Sam before Kensi gestured to him.

"Follow me."

"Paintballing? We're going paintballing?" Deeks' eyes widened, but the smile on his face grew wider as he saw the equipment in front of him. "This is going to be _awesome_!" Kensi had practically dragged him down the stairs and into a room he hadn't noticed before. How in nine and a half months had Deeks not noticed this room? The team, minus Eric and Nell were assembled in the room going through the equipment and loading themselves up with guns and strapping them to their thighs, waist and around their shoulders. The NCIS equipment wasn't like normal paintball equipment – then again Deeks hadn't really expected NCIS to authorize paintballing sessions between the team.

Callen grinned as he nailed Kensi in the back with a blast of air. She shrieked and whipped one of the paintballing masks at him, however her throw wasn't fast enough and Callen had ducked behind the pillar. "Oh it's _on_, G." Kensi threatened before whipping a paintball in his general direction.

"We've got to raise the stakes this time, now that the entire team is here." Sam said calmly, chuckling as his partner leaned casually against the pillar. One look at Kensi and Deeks knew that she was plotting a way to nail him repeatedly on the course. "I say, winner buys drinks tonight."

Kensi grinned mischievously at Deeks, and he knew something was going on in her head – and he had a feeling that Callen and Sam weren't going to like her plan at all. "Like I said G, game _on_."


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N; I am so addicted to writing this story it isn't even funny. I bet anything though – I won't update for a week and a half because that's usually what happens when I churn out stories this fast. I burn out pretty easily. Anyways, this one is more from Kensi's point of view – and as you'll see she's got a softer side to her than we usually see on the show. Except when it comes to Callen hitting her with the air from the paintball gun, then she'll become the kickass Kensi that we know and love. I apologize that it's going to take them a long time before they actually get to paintballing, because Nell's having a hissy fit, Callen's secretly laughing at her, Kensi and Deeks won't stop bickering and Eric just wants to hit people with his paintballs. I promise, next chapter they will start the conspiring and paintballing.**

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><p>Paintball was something that Kensi Blye had always been good at. Her father had taken her out on the course when she was younger, and had always claimed that target practice would be good for her. Honestly, she thankful that her father had understood herself better than she had, because the target practice had come in handy. It probably wasn't the healthiest thing for a girl of fifteen to go out and paintball with her father – but it was, in a way, relaxing and Kensi loved the quality time with her dad. Of course, her dad had always believed in preparing Kensi for the 'real world' – he had never been one of those father's to baby Kensi, that just wasn't in his blood. He loved his daughter, but he never would pick her up when she whined, or coddle her when she cried. He wasn't completely heartless, he would kiss her scraped knees better, wipe her tears when she was sad, and would even hug her when things didn't look to bright for the young girl. But never once had Kensi Blye felt the need to be looked after. She always told Deeks, Callen and Sam off whenever they tried to protect her, she hated that feeling of being helpless and there was rarely a time where she allowed herself to get so caught up in the investigation that she stopped watching her back. No. That rarely happened for the young agent – her personal feelings were usually kept hidden behind a solid wall. However, there were times that her steely facade faltered, and once and awhile someone would get too close before she wound up pushing them away.<p>

Her mind had drifted from the paintball match in front of her and slowly she pulled her mind back into focus. She smiled as Deeks slid a smaller gun into his arm holster – Hetty had managed to get technologically advanced paintball guns that didn't require the user to carry around big air containers. It was nice; it meant that the team could carry various sized guns with them while they played through the course. This time however, it was going to be different. They rarely did this type of training, and it was nice when they actually got out onto the course and had fun. The last few times Kensi's team hadn't done as well as Kensi had planned, and she had left pretty pissed off – not only at Eric, who somehow managed to have a pretty good shot, but at Deeks too for failing to back her up. She was a competitive person, and she liked to win. Of course, there were the few times she managed to pull off a flawless win but that was when she was with Callen, or even Sam. She liked working best with Callen, not because he was an excellent shot but because the two of them worked magnificently together. However, Kensi would have rather had her actual partner join her on the course. Hetty rarely paired the actual partners together, and Kensi felt a little bad about it – but it was good for her, mainly because she felt the disappointment every time Deeks refused to show. Kensi was pretty sure Hetty could see that whenever they did team exercises, which was probably why Callen and Sam were partnered together. It was one of the many great things about Hetty – the ability to see how the absence of any team member affected the team.

"Kensi?" Kensi turned her head to Deeks, and looked at him slightly confused – how long had he been trying to get her attention? "You zoned out, and I've been waving this in front of your face for about two minutes." He held out the gun that Kensi preferred to use on the paintball course, "Callen told me it was your favourite. Jeez, if you had told me this was what you guys did for training – I probably would have shown up."

A slight smile graced Kensi's lips as she took the gun from him and shouldered it by the strap that held the main part of the gun up, "I repeatedly told you that it wasn't what you would normally see on a team exercise."

"You did not. I would have remembered if you had, because I probably would have asked you what you guys did."

"You've got selective hearing Deeks, trust me – I told you." She glanced around, noticing for the first time that Callen and Sam were nowhere to be seen, and that she could faintly hearing arguing from the Ops center.

Deeks followed her gaze and smirked, "Nell's still not happy that she has to go out into the field with us. I think she'd rather stay in the tower and watch us nail each other with fluorescent paint."

Kensi shrugged, "I think it'll be good for her – especially because I think it'll give her and Eric a whole new perspective on their relationship. Besides, I bet she's going to surprise us all."

"Maybe she'll take us all out, and Hetty'll reassign her to field agent. We'd all lose our jobs."

"I wouldn't doubt that Mister Deeks." Hetty told him, appearing to the left of him – "Now, Miss Blye and Mister Deeks. I suggest you quit chatting with one another and go and put your designated clothing for this task, otherwise Mister Callen and Mister Hanna will decide that they win by forfeit."

A few minutes later, Kensi and Deeks stood side by side as they finished checking to see if their guns were in place and that everything they needed were in arm's reach. With a quick flick of her wrist, Kensi whipped her hair up into a tight ponytail, and pulled the goggles down around her neck. Deeks had done the same thing and his right hand rested on the top of his paintball gun on his waist belt. Nell came up beside them; her red pixie cut hair pulled into two low pigtails. "I'm really not ready for this. I have four older brothers, and I know they should have prepared me for this – but now I'm going against trained NCIS agents who shoot guns on a day to day basis. This does not end well for me. It's one thing getting one or two paintballs being shot at you in the tower, but out there? It's going to be painful, and I don't do pain incredibly well." Kensi couldn't help it, she started to laugh at her friend and co-worker. "I mean, you and Marty. You two are going to be perfectly fine, I mean you'll probably get shot once or twice – but you'll be perfectly fine, but me? I'm only the intelligence analyst, I don't shoot the guns!"

"Neither does Eric." Deeks pointed out, as he wrapped a comforting arm around the smaller woman, "you'll be perfectly fine Nell. You just have to come up with an escape plan if you start getting shot at. You're brilliant; you'll find some way to avoid the shots."

Kensi nodded in agreement, while Eric didn't seem like the kind of person who could actually deal with shooting a gun – he was perfectly fine at firing a paintball gun. That had always surprised Kensi, Eric wasn't a bad partner when it came to these training exercises, he was pretty good at improvising when cornered, and his escape plans were pretty decent. "Seriously Nell, if Callen or Sam shoot at you – just shoot back at them until you hit one of them, because chances are you will." Kensi knew that the chances of Nell hitting one of them were slim, but Kensi just wanted to make the tech feel more confident. "The more confident you are, the better you'll do on the course."

Nell nodded her thanks to the agent and the LAPD detective, but both Deeks and Kensi could tell by the look on her face that she still wasn't feeling very confident towards the entire excursion.

"Come on, I'll drive." Kensi nudged Deeks and he shrugged, "Nell – are you catching a ride with Eric? Or do you want to come with us?" She was feeling a little more generous towards Nell, simply because she felt bad that the poor girl had been dragged into this against her will. Then again, Kensi had done a lot of things that she had rather not do – and deep down, Kensi actually thought that this training exercise would be good for Nell. It would definitely give her a new perspective on how the team worked. She didn't understand why they hadn't brought Nell out into the field before, besides that one little field trip she did down to the recruitment center.

"Um. Sure, I guess that would be great. Eric's gone off somewhere, I think he mentioned something about a new pair of binoculars that he had bought and, well, actually I'm just not sure where he's gone and I don't really want to be left alone, so if I could come with you – that would be great." Nell rambled on.

Kensi had no problem finding the place where Hetty had set up the training area for the NCIS agents that worked for the Los Angeles division, she had been there countless times before for training and had even done her physical test at the same place. Then again, the arena had looked totally different when she did the test – now? Well, now it looked like a mass jungle one would find in Southern America. Kensi parked her car next to Sam's, and stepped out taking her sunglasses off of her face and setting them on the dash. She turned to face her blonde partner and smiled lightly at him, "Ready?"

He smirked at her and gestured for her to show him the way. Nell was nervously twisting her hands together, and Deeks set a steady hand on her shoulder before nudging her forward gently. He was excited to see how the course was laid out, and frankly he was just excited to see how the team exercise really worked. Of course, he knew that they were paintballing – but were they going to get an objective? Would they have to rescue something? Or would it be a mixture of things? Deeks always enjoyed a challenge, and this was probably going to be one of the more entertaining challenges he'd been a part of simply because no one's life was on the line, and he could definitely have a little fun with it. He wasn't really ready to see the arena in all its glory though. As soon as Kensi led him into the forested area, he stopped dead in his tracks. There was no way they were going to easily see through all the foliage. Kensi turned into a little building where Callen and Sam were chatting away, awaiting the rest of their team to join them.

"Ah, there are the rest of our latecomers ..." Callen grinned, before realizing that not all of them were there, "or at least most of them. Where's Eric?"

Deeks wasn't paying attention, he was moving to the pictures that were hanging on the wall by the window. Deeks had assumed that they weren't ever allowed to take pictures, as it could potentially compromise any undercover projects they could go under, but as he thought about it – he realized that there was probably no one who could ever find this place other than the agents that were a part of the LA field office. This was their home away from home, one of the few places they could actually personalize without putting their team members in harm's way. A few pictures caught his interest though. He could see Kensi, Callen and Sam – but there was another male with them. That must have been Dom, judging by how recent the picture was. His eyes drifted upwards as he saw Nate Getz, the team's psychologist with his arm wrapped around Kensi's shoulder. Another picture, next to Kensi and Nate's grabbed his attention. "Hey, who are these guys?"

He felt Kensi come up behind him, and he pointed to a tall silver haired man, and what looked to be his team behind him. "That's Gibbs. He was up here a couple of years ago, back when Mace was still around." There was a moment of sadness in her voice, and Deeks could tell that it was going to be a touchy subject if he asked her about it – so he decided against it. Kensi pointed at the dark haired woman in the picture, "Ziva David", her finger moved to the man who stood on the right of Gibbs, "Tony DiNozzo – you know, I think you two would get along" her finger moved to the final man in the photo who was kneeling on the ground looking down at what looked to be like evidence in a case, "and that's Timothy McGee. They're a part of the D.C division."

"And all of them are very good agents, and loyal friends." Hetty had come out of a back room, and set the ear pieces on the table that Sam was leaning against, "now please insert these into your ears, and we shall get started on today's training exercise."

The three agents, technical expert, and detective reached forward and secured their ear pieces in their ears. The door of the building opened and slammed behind them, and the team turned to see their final team member run in. His face was still covered in camouflage paint, and he still looked like he was ready to go out into the wilderness – not into a secure paintball course.

"Thank you for joining us, Mister Beale. As I was saying, please insert your ear piece into your ears and you may enter the course. We'll begin shortly." With that, Hetty disappeared into the room that Deeks had saw her come through before.

Callen and Kensi were the first to enter the course, seeing as both of them wanted to get to the best positions possible – and neither of them were giving up the chance to shoot at each other first. The two of them went out the doors, trying to shove each other out of the way playfully. "They're like children." Sam muttered to himself, and Deeks chuckled lightly beside him. He was the one who was used to getting comments like that – but it was better when his partner was at the receiving end of them.

Hetty's voice filled the ear piece that the team was wearing, and Deeks winced as his ears adjusted to the voice coming out of them. "The object of the training today is to not get shot by the opposing team. You've all been divided into your regular partnerships, and I would expect the very best out of all of you. If you are shot, you must return to the base of the optical tower – where more instructions will be waiting. The last person standing will be declared the winner, and thus leading to his or her team being the winners of the round. No headshots, Mister Callen. Now, play fair and remember – I am always watching."

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><p><strong>That definitely turned out a lot longer than I had planned for. Anyways, again I apologize for this chapter being basically a filler chapter - I promise the next one they're actually going to start paintballing. Anyways, if any of you have any ideas on what should happen - please leave a comment or two in the review section. I love comments, questions, criticism - pretty much everything. I love getting feedback, even if other people find it negative. But please, review - it definitely makes me want to write more. Like I said, if you've got any ideas just let me know and I'll take them into consideration(: Cheers!<strong>


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N; This has apparently turned into a chapter a day fanfic. I'm not actually surprised though considering my love for NCIS is growing, which is insane. So, basically this chapter is going to insane. Also, Eric's gunning for a win – but it'll be interesting to see who comes out of it on top. Some people want Nell, others want Deeks. Maybe I'll surprise you all. Hold on tight, because things are about to get crazy.**

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><p>Eric rarely stepped out of Ops during an investigation. He rarely had field time, and he rarely wanted to leave the Ops centre. In fact, Callen had teased him about becoming a hermit in the centre once or twice but it had never bothered Eric. Eric Beale was the kind of guy who would rather wear his flip flops and board shorts to work, be sitting at a computer with his headset – tuned into the rest of his team, rather than wearing jeans and a t-shirt that chances were would get stained by blood, smoke, grass or dirt. It wasn't even limited to that. Eric was not the kind of guy who did the heavy lifting. He preferred to sit and watch his team carefully, making sure that they had the intel that they needed to protect themselves and if it came down to it – arm themselves. That was Eric's job. He had never complained about that. The NCIS hadn't hired him for his muscle; they had hired him for his expertise in technology and the ability to hack almost any computer network that surfaced on the planet Earth. It was nice to get out once and awhile and really feel like he was a part of the team though. It hadn't been until after Dom's disappearance that Eric was able to take part in the training exercises. Nate had deduced it was because the team felt a little lost, and now wanted to keep all their members in their line of sight – Callen was especially bad for it. Eric hadn't really understood why until Nate had filled him in on the fact that Callen saw the team like his family, seeing as G's family history was limited – it was then Eric began to develop a new respect for the team leader, and almost pitied him. Almost being the keyword. In Eric's mind, G had one of the best family's out there, and he was proud to be considered a member of it.<p>

People had been added to their little family of course. First it was Deeks, who Eric suspected was going to be sticking around for a long time, then Nell – Eric's partner in crime. At first, Eric had simply felt like Deeks was taking Dom's spot on the team, but when he thought about it Eric felt that the team needed to be complete again and mourning the loss of Dom wasn't going to help them progress from that stage. He also knew that while Kensi worked well enough with Callen and Sam, she really did need someone to back her up – Sam and Callen had a hard enough time making sure each other were okay, and when you threw Kensi into the mix – well their minds always went to her first. While Deeks could be irritating, Eric was appreciative of him – especially since he seemed to bring out the best in Kensi, despite the irritated glares she gave him on a regular basis. Eric however, had been more hesitant towards having Nell on the team. With Deeks it was different. He wasn't invading Eric's space, if anything he was bugging the hell out of Kensi – but with Eric? Not so much. However, when Nell joined the team she had annoyed him beyond belief. Taking his whistle duties, interrupting him while he briefed the team – something he had been doing for years and overall just being a nuisance - he had grown to appreciate her though, especially after she had told him what her problem with him was. It wasn't so much she had a problem, just more an admiration – which Eric liked.

And now? Now his partner was out on the field with him, looking very much like he did the first time Hetty had decided that Eric was due out on field duty. Nell seemed smaller though, something that worried Eric a little bit – if her head wasn't completely in this game, then they were definitely going to lose it. "Nell? Nell?" He whispered, his blue eyes looking slightly creepy amongst the camouflage he had put on his face. He had learnt that when playing with NCIS trained field agents – it was best to become as in tune with the environment as possible. Sam had an uncanny ability of appearing behind you – and Callen could be quite the distraction. It was a game of tag team with those two. Kensi had been taught by her father to follow tracks, and hide stealthily so when it came to her – Eric was a little bit more than scared. He hadn't trained with Deeks yet, but he could tell that the LAPD detective was bound to have a few tricks up his sleeve.

Nell coughed, her goggles slipped down onto her nose and she let go of her paintball gun to push it back up. Unfortunately for her, she hadn't clipped her strap on her gun together properly and with a crash the gun fell to the course's floor. Nell breathed in, and Eric could tell that she was starting to lose patience rather than being more scared off by the thought of paintballs flying at her. "This was their dumbest idea yet." Nell grumbled, bending over to pick up her gun and Eric held out his hand which she gratefully put the gun into. He snapped the straps together and slung it over his partner's head where it rested on her shoulder.

"It'll be good for you." Eric promised her, smiling at her. She offered a hesitant smile back, before holding up her hand.

"Eric, there's someone here." He stopped walking, and listened – trying to figure out what exactly Nell was hearing.

"Nell, I don't ..."

"Shhh." She hissed and pulled him down. Slowly she moved towards the tree on their left, before standing up – her back against it, looking widely around her. "If I'm doing this, I am _so_ not getting taken out first." Eric had to give her credit – once Nell was involved in something, she definitely gave it her all. He wouldn't put it past her to outsmart everyone and win the entire round. Her dedication to the task at hand was always welcoming, even if he didn't agree with it – which happened on just about every case they worked on. Instead of giving her a pat on the back for nice cover, he held up two fingers and gestured for her to go right.

"Eric, I'm a technical analyst – I don't do hand signals. I do talking or whispering. Whichever one you prefer."

He sighed, and motioned with his hand, "C'mon Nell. We've got to get to a vantage point so we can see –" He was cut off by the sound of paintballs flying over him, and without another word him and Nell dove to the ground and began army crawling on the dirt. Beside him he could hear Nell swearing under her breath, if it wasn't for the fact that they were being shot at by trained agents – Eric would have started to laugh. He knew that their position had already been given away, but he wasn't giving up that easily.

"Eric, here." Nell touched his arm lightly and he could see where she was pointing. By the base of another huge tree there was what looked to be like protrusion of the roots from the tree which created a sheltered area. It was a smart move; they could stay there until whoever was shooting at them – disappeared. From the way he saw it – it was definitely luck that they hadn't gotten nailed. Maybe it was Deeks? Maybe Deeks really wasn't the best shot that he appeared to be. No, that couldn't be right. As much as Eric wanted to say that they were awesome at avoiding paintballs – they weren't. The person or people who had almost hit them were probably at a disadvantage – being in a horrible position to shoot. Take out the easy competition first, then the harder one's last. Eric wasn't having it. They were going to go down with a fight – and he saw the same resignation on Nell's face. "If they think that they can just take us out easy peasy, they've got another thing coming." Nell's face was set, she was not going to lose this even if it killed her.

"So what? Now we're just going to camp out here until whoever it was leaves us alone?"

Nell thought for a second as she pulled her gun out from her side and set it on the stand that could potentially be used for sniping. "Honestly, I think they probably will mainly because they'll think we'll be easy to take out after. Why waste ammo on us when they can just put a paintball gun against our back's and be done with it?" She had a valid point. They were smarter than that, and while they had about five containers of paintballs hidden inside the course – none of the other three agents and the LAPD detective would waste theirs on shooting at Nell and Eric.

"Or, I could just stand above you and pretend that I didn't hear any of that." Callen told them, as he lowered his gun into their hide out. "Now I see why Hetty doesn't let either of you out into the field – you don't exactly blend with the environment." He studied both of them, a smirk appeared on his face. "I'd apologize, but I plan on becoming the last man standing."

"Okay, first of all – I blend in perfectly fine. Second of all," Eric paused as his gloved hand reached down to pull his pistol from his pocket, "actually, I don't have a second of all." He brought his hand up in one quick motion but instead of a bullet coming from his gun – three came flying in from behind one of the bushes that Eric couldn't see.

Apparently they had hit Callen, "What the ..." He whirled around to see who had fired the shot – only to find Kensi pointing her own paintball gun on him. "Kensi!"

She shrugged apologetically, "Sorry – I made a promise to Nell. Keep her in the game until it was down to us two."

"And me! I'm your partner, I think I deserve some credit here" Deeks' voice came from somewhere further back behind his partner, his whereabouts was unknown by Eric, "And Callen, don't even think of letting Sam shoot Kensi – or you'll get shot with a couple more bullets before I hunt him down."

Callen sighed, it didn't matter anyways – Sam had probably seen the entire interaction and was probably cursing his partner. Why had Callen bothered mocking Eric and Nell? Maybe it was because it was entertaining to see the two technical staff in what he liked to call his environment? Or maybe it was because of his own stupidity? The latter option was probably the one Sam was going to go with. "Doesn't matter anyways, he's probably hunting Deeks right now." Callen raised his hands in defeat, while Kensi gave him a triumphant smile. "Traitor."

"Hey! We haven't been partners in a long time G, I've got my own LAPD detective to take care of." As Callen trudged back through the bush towards the tower's base, Kensi gave Nell a wink. "Next time, watch your back – and try to be a little quieter." With that comment she took off into the bush where she had emerged from just a few seconds before.

Eric figured she was going to find her partner before they took down Sam together. He had to admit – those two were good. While Callen and Sam were tracking down Nell and Eric, Kensi and Deeks had backtracked and were hunting Callen and Sam. He had thought that those two would have set up some sort of base camp where they could just fire paintballs onto unsuspecting people – and that was probably what Callen had figured first – it was always what Kensi had planned first. Then again, they had added two more players into the mix – so now a few more surprises were getting added into the mix. This could get pretty interesting and Eric almost wished he was at the optical tower so that he could see the movements of the team. Almost.

He ducked down beside Nell and grinned at her, before she swatted him with her hand. "You're lucky I made nice with the opposing team before entering this arena of doom." She told him sternly, "I've made allies – you've almost gotten us taken out of the game." He shook his head at her before wiggling his way out of the hole and offering her a hand to pull her up. "Thanks."

Hetty's voice filled their earpieces, and it almost sounded a little bit enthusiastic – "One down, four to go." There it was – that ominous feeling of a certain impending doom, just laid flat out in front of the remaining members of the Special Ops team. Somewhere in the dense forest Nell and Eric could hear Deeks' laughter, and then a sound of pain – again from Deeks. Eric smirked, and Nell laughed – that sound of pain only meant one thing: Kensi had definitely found her partner. It didn't matter though. Callen was out of the game, and that meant it had gotten a little bit easier for the technical team to win.

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><p><strong>AN; Another long chapter, this one I had fun writing though – especially since I've got a soft spot for Eric. Trust me, him and Nell have more of a best friend/partner in crime relationship than a romantic one. If anything, Eric views Nell as a little sister – there'll be some mention of where his romantic life is. Honestly though, I've got no idea how I'm going to pair Nell and Callen together – but it will happen. Maybe that's why he was mocking her, boys are always mean to the girls they like(: Anyways! Let me know what you think, and there will probably be a new chapter tomorrow, written from Deeks' point of view since I'm missing my beautiful blonde in my life. Review! Tell me what you think so far! 3 **

**PS: Because I think I'm going to get a few questions - no, Kensi didn't shoot Deeks with her paintball gun, she simply gave him the punch in the arm that she usually does. It's all love when it concerns those two, even though half the time Deeks does not feel the love.**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N;** **You guys kill me with your reviews(: You're all too sweet, and I love the feedback I'm getting from each and every one of you! Thank you. It means so much. This chapter is kind of divided up in four different points of view. Or rather three. No, four. I don't know. Callen. Sam (slightly). Kensi. Slightly Deeks. I know I promised this chapter was going to be Deeks', but I started writing from Callen's and I just couldn't stop. I'm still trying to figure out how to get Callen and Nell romantically linked – but that's a little harder than I had planned. However, you'll see Eric's romantic life. It's cute.**

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><p>"My girlfriend can kill you without leaving any forensic evidence!" Callen heard Eric shout as he trudged through the brush. Callen figured that this was payback for making fun of Eric's camouflage – even though Callen secretly thought it was a cool idea. He chuckled however at the thought of Abigail Sciuto killing someone. He knew as well as Eric did that Abby Sciuto wouldn't harm anyone - especially Callen. After Abby had left California, Callen had made sure to keep in contact with her. He was quite fond of the forensic specialist from DC, and he could see why Gibbs liked her. She had a special personality, one that wouldn't fit anyone else other than her. It seemed that G wasn't the only who had kept talking to her, Eric and Abby had hit it off and the two became close. They had moved on from friendship and the two had begun dating awhile ago. Of course, Callen felt that it was his duty to protect the girl he considered to be his little sister and teasingly threatened Eric that if he hurt Abby - there would be consequences. As he thought about the forensic specialist it brought him back to the latest turn of events of their training exercise ...<p>

Now that had been embarrassing. When Sam and G had decided that they were going to take Nell and Eric down first - it wasn't because they thought they were weaker. In fact, Eric had surprised G quite a few times with his ability to go through the course silently. He didn't even have that bad of a shot, and he had hit G a few times with his paintballs. Of course, he had Kensi's or Sam's help and that took away from Eric's credit - nonetheless he managed to hold his own when it came to going up against the three agents. However, G had made the decision that having Nell as Eric's partner would throw Eric off. She had always seemed to be innocent, and the last person you had to worry about while paintballing. G shouldn't have put it passed Kensi however, when it came down teaming up with other opposing team - especially when it came down to the two girls. Kensi hadn't had another female on the field yet. Hetty refused to take part, so Kensi was left to fend for herself. He should have known. G had always taken pride in knowing his team members. Sam was easy to read, along with Eric and Nell - Kensi took some more time, and there were bits of Deeks that he still wasn't sure about - of course, Hetty was the hardest to figure out. But this? This was a turn of events. G sighed. Sam was really going to kill him once he found out what had gone down. Callen wouldn't put it passed him if he already knew. He should have let Sam take out Kensi - but that wasn't fair play. It was an unspoken rule that once someone was hit - the game reset and it gave everyone a chance to collect themselves for the next attack.

Kensi would have attacked Callen if Sam had hit her. Hell hath no fury like Kensi Marie Blye scorned. He wouldn't take that chance. Deeks always pushed Kensi's buttons, but G watched over Kensi like an older brother. Sure, they could make the couple appearance work - but he hadn't worked an undercover couple assignment in a long time. At least, not since Deeks had become Kensi's partner. G approved. He had known as soon as Hetty had introduced Deeks as the LAPD liason that she wanted him as an agent. He didn't mind, not really. He was one of the few that felt that Dom's spot needed to be filled, and while Kensi and Deeks rarely saw eye to eye - he knew he could count on Deeks to have Kensi's back. In fact, he was fairly certain that Deeks would put his life on the line for Kensi. It wasn't the friendliest of thoughts - but it allowed G to accept Deeks better. Being on good terms with Deeks did not allow G to feel happy towards his current situation. He had wanted to be the man on top - even if it meant taking out his own partner. Sam would have been extremely unimpressed by G's actions, but they would have laughed afterwards. It was that easy goingness that kept them being best friends. Although, that status had probably been revoked in terms of where Callen resided on Sam's friend list.

Callen pushed the doors of the tower's base open and shook his head at Hetty's stern face. "Don't even give me that look." He told her, before setting his gun on the table and taking of the bulletproof vest that he had been wearing. "Also, when did we decide that camouflage was acceptable? I do believe that is giving Eric the advantage."

Hetty chuckled, "there were no rules about arming yourself with other tactics. It obviously wouldn't have helped you Mister Callen, seeing as your plan was to stand over those two and mock them." G raised his hands in a defending motion.

"Kensi made a truce with Nell, I call that quite the unfair advantage."

"I seem to recall you and Mister Hanna tag teaming Miss Blye when you were specifically asked to play as individuals." Callen gave her a sheepish smile. It was hard when you had been partners with someone for so long and then were asked not to work with each other. He wasn't surprised that Hetty knew about that. She seemed to know everything. "Now, Mister Callen what do you think of this?" She directed his gaze to the monitor that contained the cameras of the course, and the red dots that were moving across the lower screen of the monitor. Callen could see the initials of his team lining up on their trackers. Sam had taken a back path and was coming alongside Nell and Eric's paths. He wouldn't hit them just yet. He probably hadn't made a new tactical plan yet, and was probably just tracking them to know where they were. Kensi and Deeks' dots were moving further apart, and Callen realised they were surrounding Nell, Eric and Sam.

"Today is not our day." Callen mused, turning to the small woman.

"No, it does not appear that way now does it. However, your partner will hopefully take the time to shoot rather than mock."

Sam knew things weren't going to go his way when G had gotten himself shot, he raised his finger to his ear and pressed the microphone button "G, when I see you again - you can expect a beat down." There was a chuckle in his ear, "I'm serious, G. You shouldn't have teased them, it cost you man." Sam wasn't too worried though, he knew he had a better shot than Eric and Nell was bound to be easy to take down. He was more worried for the Deeks and Kensi partnership. Those two could easily take him out - especially since G had got himself taken out. It was why he wasn't shooting at Nell and Eric just yet, it would compromise his position. He paused, adjusting his strap on his shoulder and reached up - pulling himself onto the tree branch where he perched himself and watched Nell and Eric move slowly through the brush.

What he didn't know was that Deeks and Kensi had split up and were now backtracking - surrounding Sam from either side. It had been Deeks' plan, and Kensi was beginning to realize that her partner was smarter than she gave him credit for. Actually, it had been Deeks' plan from the very beginning. Kensi didn't want to break her old habits of setting a base camp further away from the rest of the team, it was something her dad had taught her when in the wilderness – but Deeks had pointed out to her that they weren't exactly roughing in the wild. In fact, he had been the first person to point that out. Every other agent had treated the exercise like it was the real deal; leave it to Deeks to point out the obvious. Except that pointing out the obvious had worked in their favour. Had she really become that predictable when it came to these things that her team members didn't even bother looking for her first? Or that they didn't expect to have the entire game changed? Either way, it had worked for Deeks and Kensi. Now? Well now they were about to be the last team standing. Kensi wasn't really sure how that was going to work. She didn't have time to dwell upon it because she could hear Nell and Eric's voices growing closer and closer. Kensi slowed down, and began moving through the bushes a lot quieter. Sam had to be around here somewhere, he wouldn't go after Kensi and Deeks. Not yet anyways. He had to build up another plan in order to save himself considering his partner was now out of the game. It was going to be harder for Sam to watch his back, and fire the gun at multiple people. Eric and Nell? Easier targets. Deeks and Kensi? Not so much.

Kensi knelt down on the ground, and glanced at one of the tracks that had to have been left by Sam. From her experience, Sam and Eric almost had the same size of feet – but Sam's step was heavier than Eric's – mainly because of his mass in muscle. Eric was too scrawny to leave a heavy footprint, so it definitely had to have been Sam's. It also meant that he was around here somewhere. She glanced around nervously, her miscoloured eyes searching for any sign of the ex-SEAL. Nothing. If Sam wanted to stay hidden, Kensi knew he would. Moving closer she saw Nell sitting underneath a tree – her goggles pulled down around her neck. Eric was on guard, his camouflaged face turning every few seconds – scanning the area. Kensi couldn't help but laugh, and when she did a fire of paintballs came from above her. She rolled out of the way, and took off in the opposite direction – away from the paintball fire. Kensi was pretty sure that Eric and Nell had heard the commotion and were bound to be moving once again. She lifted her hand to the earpiece and switched on her microphone that was attached to her vest, "Deeks? Deeks! I'm under fire, where are you?" Kensi slowed down, and turned – walking backwards. If Sam had been up in the tree, there was no way he had gotten down that fast and was on her tail. If she was Sam, she would have stayed in the tree where it was safe. "Deeks? Loop around that open area where Nell and Eric were, then fire into the tree where all the paintballs are. You can't miss it." Kensi glanced around her general area, and realized where she was. She and Callen had spent a couple of days here building a tree fort that could be used as a vantage point. The best part about it was that no one else knew where it was, and as much as Hetty changed the trails and general area – she couldn't move the tree fort. She squinted her eyes and could make out the rope that would bring down the ladder and she pulled on it. The rope ladder came tumbling down and Kensi grinned to herself, this just made the game that much better. As she climbed she could hear an excited whoop, and cursing from the general direction in which she had come from.

Through her earpiece she could practically hear Deeks smiling, "got him Kensi. Rather, Nell hit him with a nice shot." Kensi began laughing – how was it that little Nell Jones managed to hit the ex-Navy SEAL, the one person who almost surpassed Callen in training. "That was cute Nell, real cute."

She tapped the microphone button, "nice job Deeks. Fill me in once you find me."

Back in the clearing, Deeks, Sam, Nell and Eric stood facing each other – Nell, and Deeks on one side with Eric and Sam on the other. The latter pairing were not impressed at how the turn of events managed to come out – while the former pair were grinning ear to ear. No, it was certainly not Callen or Sam's day.

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><p><strong>AN; This chapter isn't as long as the previous two, or so – but it definitely has a lot of content in it. The next chapter is going to be from Deeks' point of view, and you'll definitely see what happened in the clearing. I've got the rest of the story planned out – and it might make ten chapters. Maybe. I'll be doing a sequel to this, where they actually work a case because I've got an idea. It's not going to be angst ridden or anything for the team – Hetty might have some information or something to do with the case, but other than that none of the team members are going to get seriously hurt or anything. I also know who is going to win the title of 'last man standing', but you'll have to wait to see (:**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N; Okay, so this chapter definitely had a better beginning until I got distracted by this amazing wedding proposal on Tumblr. Literally, I started crying halfway through it because it was just so beautiful. I can't wait to get married ... well, first of all I have to meet the right guy then get married but I'm just going to be a mess at the proposal. Anyways. This chapter is mainly from Deeks' point of view, Kensi's, a little bit from Nell, and angry feelings from Eric. Let's see how this goes!**

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><p>There were many different things that Deeks did not understand about the NCIS team he was currently working with. However, the one thing that was really bothering him was how they were treating this paintball game as if they were out in Afghanistan or Iraq fighting for their lives. Deeks figured he was the only person to think of it in this way. For him, this was a game, or at best a competition between the team. He wasn't even sure if Hetty thought of it as training, but rather a way for the team to let loose and actually have some fun for once. Deeks wouldn't bring that up with the team though, he was pretty sure that they would take his point of view on this "training exercise" the wrong way and Deeks was scared he'd find himself hanging up by his feet from one of the rafters that were in the gym. This was a game to him – that's all that paintballing had ever been to him. He had gone out with the minority of the police department that didn't hate his guts once, and he couldn't understand why they got so worked up over getting shot – then again, he didn't understand why they were all such lousy shots – perhaps being stuck in the office on a regular basis didn't help you one bit. Before the paintballing match even started, Deeks had brought that up with Kensi. She was going through the bushes at the fastest pace possible, and was muttering about setting up a base camp when Deeks stopped moving and looked at his partner like she was crazy. Why on Earth would you set up a base camp when you were supposed to be shooting paintballs at your team members? What advantage would you get from that? Of course, Kensi had realized that Deeks wasn't following her anymore and had turned back around to see where he had gone. He hadn't gone far; in fact he was still right behind her – just five feet behind. When he had brought up that thought – they had gotten into a minor argument.<p>

It was a regular thing between them. If they didn't have at least one disagreement during the day, then it was going to end up being quite a weird day. Deeks said it was 'balance' that they needed in their life. That was what the arguing was for. Balance. They had their teasing moments, and they had their little moments where they actually showed how much they cared for one another – but mostly they had their disagreements. He wouldn't be partnered with Kensi if they didn't have their disagreements. She wouldn't be Kensi if she didn't challenge everything he said. But no. They had been on the course for not even five minutes and they were arguing about what their plan was. It had surprised Deeks that his plan had won out, and he was even a little more surprised that Sam and Callen had decided to take out Nell and Eric first. Wouldn't it have been the better choice to go after Kensi and himself? Him and Kensi were the harder team to beat – not that he was saying Nell and Eric couldn't hold their own – and it would have given Callen and Sam the advantage if both Kensi and Deeks were out of the running. Maybe it was because they figured Kensi would go and find herself a base camp, and once she did that – it would be easy to corner them. Deeks didn't like her plan though. The argument ended with something along the lines of – "you're getting predictable Kensi. Isn't it all about changing up your routine?" He had won. Kensi's plans for finding a base camp came to an end and they backtracked, deciding that taking out Callen and Sam would be a good idea. Deeks may have mentioned that they did have to watch Nell's back, as they had promised her she wouldn't be taken out first. That had gotten Kensi turned around quickly.

The confrontation between him, Kensi and Callen had gone down pretty quickly. He knew that Sam wouldn't be near his partner – so while Kensi took lead and went in with her paintball gun, Deeks circled the area looking for Sam. It appeared that Sam wasn't anywhere near Callen. Maybe the two had split up and Sam was looking for Deeks and Kensi? No. He wouldn't leave his partner unguarded – he was probably just holding back fire so he wouldn't give up his position. Deeks knew Kensi well enough to know that she wasn't going to make herself known until the last second, and by then Callen would already have three nicely placed paintballs on the back of his vest. Sure enough, Deeks could hear the protest of Callen and the laughter coming from Kensi before Deeks took cover behind her – but out of the view of everyone else. He could hear the gist of the conversation between Kensi and Callen, and after a minute of thought – Deeks had to tell Callen to lay off his partner otherwise Sam would be out of the running for last man standing. Thankfully nothing happened, and Kensi and Deeks took off again into the bushes. Both of them knew that the war with Sam wasn't over yet, and as they retreated in the opposite direction of Nell and Eric, they could hear Callen clomping through the bushes.

"He's not being very quiet is he?" Deeks asked his partner as he ran his gloved hand through his shaggy blonde hair. Kensi pursed her lips together and shrugged – her mismatched eyes looking at his blue ones.

"G doesn't like to lose, and usually when we do a paintball course like this – he wins. I don't think it's the losing part he doesn't like right now; I think it's the being out first part." Deeks could see it. Out of the entire team Callen had the best shot, and every time they did shooting drills, or team exercises with shooting involved in it – Callen would always win. Was it surprising that Kensi was jealous? Not really. For once, Kensi wanted to win the entire thing. As she casted a glance at her partner – she could see that the same scenario had just ran through Deeks' head as well. She wasn't the only one who wanted to win this paintball match, and she smiled at the thought of them finally agreeing on something and not completely biting each other's heads off.

"Hey, Princess – I know you're probably thinking about all the naughty things you want to do to me, but we've got a paintball match to win." Deeks teased her, waving a hand in front of her face and snapping Kensi out of her sentimental moment. She glared at him, before turning on her heel and walking away from him. "Princess! C'mon!" He watched her for a moment before realizing that she wasn't slowing down, or going to wait for him, "Kensi!" Her head held high, she continued to walk away from her partner – but she wasn't really mad at him. She had learnt to expect nothing but sexual innuendoes, and jokes coming from her partner.

Kensi couldn't understand how he never took anything too seriously; her view on life was that it wasn't something that you could joke with. She had lost her dad at such a young age, and her mother at an even younger age and that had changed her view on everything. It probably hadn't helped that she ended up with a family friend after her father died. Her dad had been friends with the lady of the house for years, they went way back and if Kensi's godmother and father hadn't been living in Europe she would have gone to live with them. It didn't matter. Mina had always been kind to Kensi, and Kensi had never really minded visiting her. Mina's kids had always tried to pick on Kensi, but since she had grown up a Marine brat, Christopher and Julian could never keep up with her. That had always suited Kensi fine, she could hold her own and if it came down to it, Kensi could take down both Christopher and Julian with one move. It wasn't easy growing up as a sixteen year old when both your parents were dead, and you were forced into a family you didn't really want to be a part of – but Kensi managed to get through it, and Kensi figured if anything it had made her a hell of a lot stronger. It may have made her stronger, but it had also forced her to put a guard up – it was one that was incredibly rare for anyone to break through. However, Deeks had it just as hard as Kensi had growing up – and yet, he managed to make it through life cracking jokes and pretending like nothing was wrong. Kensi supposed that it had to do with how each individual dealt with certain situations. Deeks certainly dealt better with it than Kensi, and honestly – Kensi was jealous of how her partner managed to keep a smile on his face the majority of the time. Sure, sometimes his jokes were inappropriate – but they always managed to loosen the tension that everyone was feeling. Kensi would never admit it but they were lucky to have the LAPD detective on their side.

Behind her, Kensi could hear Deeks apologizing repeatedly even though she knew he didn't mean any of it. "Hey, Kensi? Kensi? Kensi?" Kensi debated on whether she should actually stop and let her partner finish his question. No. He was only trying to get her attention, by being his annoying self. It was not a redeeming quality that Detective Deeks had.

"Yes, Deeks?" She asked, turning around to face her partner again.

"I don't know what your plan is currently, but Sam's on his own now – I think we should track him down, and before he has a chance to take us out of the game, we hit him first." Kensi pursed her lips and tapped a finger thoughtfully on her lips.

"You're surprising me today, Deeks."

"And how is that, Princess?" He wondered, batting his eyes at an attempt to look completely innocent.

"You're coming up with the good ideas. It's shocking really." Kensi laughed at his change in facial expressions. She couldn't help but tease him right back. There were very few times Kensi allowed herself relax, and somehow around Deeks she felt more comfortable than she did anywhere else. His face had taken on a hurt appearance, but Kensi merely rolled her eyes. "You come up with the ideas, and I've got the attack strategy." Deeks raised an eyebrow, and Kensi continued – "He'll probably be looking for a way to get us all in one area so that we'll be easy targets. What if we ..." She paused and pulled her iPhone out of her pocket and clicked on the program that Eric had installed into it that allowed her to see the general region of the paintball course. "What if we circle back around and try to find him. He's not going to come after us right away since Sam will probably take a few minutes to recollect himself and figure out what he's going to do now that G's out of the running."

Deeks nodded then pointed at an open clearing on the iPhone, "I'm pretty sure this is where Nell and Eric were headed. At least it looked like it from when we left them." He moved the screen over and used his fingers to zoom in on the area, "if they are here, then Sam's going to be on the outer perimeter watching them and making sure he knows where they are at all times." He pushed the screen back out, "what if we split up, cover the outskirts of the open area and see if Sam's lurking behind any of the bushes. If he's not, we can meet back up and form a new strategy."

It seemed like the only way that they were going to get Sam out of the game. Kensi had no problem with that – it was going to be harder once Nell and Eric were the only ones left. Maybe they should have let Callen take those two out – then Kensi wouldn't be forced to deal with this dilemma. "Kens? We should probably split up here and start searching." Kensi dipped her head in affirmation, and the two gave each other one last look before taking the split paths away from each other.

Deeks wasn't happy to leave his partner alone, but it was the only way he could see them winning the exercise. The last time he had left his partner alone, she had managed to get herself locked up with all of those laser sensors. Thankfully, this time wasn't going to be as near death as that one had been – mainly because Kensi was in the middle of a training session and Deeks was fairly certain that Hetty wouldn't allow anything to happen to her agents while they were 'training.' He could make out the sounds of her footsteps fading away, and he took a deep breath before reassuring himself once again that his partner was going to be safe. It was a habit, and it was hopefully one that would save their lives again and again. He could make out the edge of the clearing, and could faintly hear Nell talking. If there was one thing Deeks was certain of, it was that Nell was never going to be a part of a SWAT team or anything that required her to be silent. Everyone had always teased Deeks about talking too much, but Nell was one of the most talkative people he had ever met in his entire life. He crept closer, and then saw movement in a tree across from where he was standing. Lowering his eyes he could see the faint outline of his partner, and his blue eyes widened a little. That did not look promising. Especially when the rain of paintballs came down. He could hear Kensi's voice in his earpiece, before the silence fell.

He didn't think when he moved into the clearing, scaring Nell – but not enough for her to pick up her paintball gun and fire at him. He fired once ... twice into the tree – both times missing the target as Sam jumped from the tree. Deeks could only hope that Kensi had managed to get herself out of the way of Sam's fire. Nell was startled enough to use her own gun, and her four shots followed Deeks' as she scrambled to get into a standing position. Three shots came from the general area that Sam had managed to crouch down to, the three who were in the clearing were on red alert, and Deeks pulled Nell behind him before he started moving backwards – firing the whole time at Sam. Eric on the other hand had disappeared through the bush and was presumably moving towards Sam. The fire kept coming towards Deeks and he retreated further back into the bush, finally pushing Nell behind the tree where he reloaded his paintball gun. He grinned at her. "Holding out alright?" He asked, pushing his hair back again and readjusting his goggles.

She nodded, "where's Eric?" Deeks could only shrug, before he moved to look around the tree trunk. Another few shots were fired, and they splattered the tree that Deeks was hiding behind.

"Great." He muttered, "Nell, do me a favour and just stay down for a few seconds." She nodded again and he knelt down on the dirt, positioning his gun by his shoulder so that he could use the scope. It didn't help much; all he could make out in the dense brush was two shapes. Deeks fired off three quick shots, before rolling back so his own back was against the base of the tree. "Tell me I hit someone." He murmured, and felt a swat on his shoulder. He turned to see Nell, who didn't look entirely please. "What?"

"Eric wants us to go out into the clearing." Sure enough, when Deeks took a second to actually look at the clearing properly he could see not only Eric standing there, but Sam as well – both were covered in paint. "I guess your wish came true." Nell giggled, and Deeks offered her a hand to help her up. She took it gratefully, the goggles falling down around her neck again. He grinned at her and walked to the middle of the clearing to meet Eric and Sam. "Looks like you both got hit pretty good – who hit you?" The glares Deeks got in return were not the warmest.

"Sam." The answer that came from Eric was short, but he did not look impressed nonetheless, "then I think you showered me a couple of times with your paintballs. Thanks for that."

"All's fair in love and war." Deeks responded happily. The lack of hitting people had been bugging him so far, but his spirits were immensely brightened by Eric's take of the event that had just gone down. His smile turned into a frown as he remembered Sam, "okay, so if Eric was hit by you – who hit you?" There were four nicely placed paintballs on Sam's body, two on his vest and two on his right leg.

Sam's darkened gaze travelled towards the redhead who had her hands clasped behind her back and was rocking anxiously on her heels. At his gaze, Nell stopped rocking and stared at him confused. "Wait, _I_ hit you? Me? The girl who has never shot anyone in her life?" Deeks let out a laugh and Sam shot him a fierce look.

"Do not say anything Deeks." Sam hissed, "if it wasn't for your distracting method of barging into the clearing I wouldn't have missed Nell firing at the same time – but since you decided that not thinking was your best option, Nell's fire went unnoticed by me." Nell was staring at him shocked, and Sam decided to finish. "I'm fairly certain these two came from you Deeks." He pointed to the ones on his chest, "but the ones on my leg hit me first – therefore Nell got me."

"Basically what you two are saying is that you've got no idea what happened." Deeks stated, giving both Sam and Eric a cocky grin. Eric was sulking, his arms crossed around his chest as he stared moodily at the ground. The look Sam gave Deeks made him shut up though, and the blonde detective reached up and switched on his microphone to give his partner the rundown of what had happened. "Kensi? Got him Kensi. Rather, Nell got him with a nice shot." He paused for a moment – turning to the redhead who was beginning to smile, "That was cute Nell, real cute." Kensi's response came through the earpiece and Deeks frowned for a moment, how the hell was he supposed to find her? He didn't dwell on that for too long as he turned his attention back to the lanky blonde, and the ex-SEAL. "See you later alligator." He winked at them before adjusting the strap for his gun and walked cockily across the clearing. Now it was time to find his partner.

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><p><strong>AN; Okay, so this chapter wasn't as good as I wanted it to be. There's a couple of moments that definitely made me laugh but I was prett****y distracted through the whole thing so I'm not sure how much of it makes sense. Anyways, the ending is closer and closer. I think there might only be a couple more chapters to this fic – but I may make a sequel. I haven't decided. It won't be about them paintballing again, but actually working on a case or something. I don't really know. The next chapter will be from Nell's point of view, after Deeks leaves – it should be interesting.**

**As usual, leave comments! Reviews! Angry typing! I love it all(:**

**Also, I won't be updating for a couple of days. Tomorrow is Halloween so I'll be trick or treating, Tuesday I'm at a concert, and Wednesday I'm studying for a math test – I'll get a chapter down sometime this week but it might take me awhile.**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N; I apologize for the nature of this chapter. This chapter is pretty much a filler chapter; it has no relevance to what is going on. Actually it does. You find out that Eric is kind of a baby when it comes to certain things, and that Callen's got the hots for Nell – but we already knew that. Anyways, this is definitely ending up being more AU then I originally planned it to be – but since we don't know the history of Eric, I've taken a few liberties concerning him. Seriously though. I'm planning another story that's recently popped into my head and after I finish this story, I'll post it up. That one will definitely be longer than this one mainly because that's actually going to be dealing with another case, which will be stressful to the NCIS team as well as stressful. Trust me. There's going to be a lot of tension, and not all of it is sexual.**

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><p>There were really only three things Eric Beale did not like in his life. Hatred number one was not being able to eat in Ops. It was a specific rule that Hetty had put in place after he had accidently knocked his box of Oreos all over the Ops floor. Needless to say that Hetty hadn't been impressed and after Callen, Nate, Kensi, and Sam had vacated the center – there had been a rather intense discipline given to Eric. After that incident there was no more food allowed in Ops. Of course, Sam and Callen managed to roll in with coffee once and awhile and of course, Hetty had her tea – but Eric? No. Eric was not allowed any food in Ops at all, and he absolutely hated that. Hatred number two revolved around having anyone in his environment. This had been going on for a long time – ever since Eric had joined NCIS. At the time of his recruitment he had been working out of a small business that sold computer software. He had been fooling around on a website, and had accidently gotten himself onto what was supposed to be secure website – property of the NCIS. Eric had never thought that anyone would show up at his doorstep – especially someone as small as Hetty – but she had, and she had definitely scared him before recruiting him. When she had shown him what was his new workplace, Eric had been in heaven – and no one was allowed in his environment. Mace had tried to help him quite a few times, but that had always backfired. Between both his and Mace's short-tempers, there had been a bit of squabbling. Then Dom had shown up to the team, and of course Eric had basically wanted to push his rolling chair out of Ops. Thankfully, Dom had started working out in the field more and Eric once again had the Ops center back to himself. It hadn't lasted long, because a year or so after Dom's disappearance – Hetty had recruited the lively redhead, who went by the name of Nell Jones into NCIS. Now that had been a game changer for Eric. He had to learn how to share, and thankfully for Nell – he did. It had gotten better since she first joined. It had been worse at the beginning when all she ever did was interrupt him, steal his whistle duty, or up him in new information. Eric had gotten used to it though – but he still wasn't incredibly happy about having anyone in his space. The only person he ever could handle invading his space was Abby Sciuto, but that was a whole different story. Finally, hatred number three – losing. He hated losing. He hated losing team members. He hated losing video games. He hated losing competitions. He simply hated losing – and getting taken out by Sam was losing, and he did not like it one bit.<p>

Of course he let that be known as the two NCIS members walked back to the base of the tower. Eric hadn't always gotten along with Sam, but today he was really pushing Sam's buttons. Usually Sam was pretty easy going, but when the baby of the team took you out – there was going to be a problem, so he was already uptight and a little peeved at that. Eric was certainly not helping his case. "Would. You. Quit. Complaining." Sam hissed as he trudged ahead of Eric. "You lost. Get over it." To say Sam was in a bad mood was an understatement. He was pissed off. Pissed off because today was the day that he and Callen were supposed to win the entire competition, but of course, Callen had to decide that taking out Nell and Eric was the better plan than going after Kensi and Deeks. Of course. Sam had been looking forward to see Kensi pay for drinks. It had been a long time since Kensi had to buy, and if it wasn't Kensi buying – then Deeks. It didn't matter to Sam, just as long as he wasn't buying. In this case it didn't affect him directly considering his partner was now going to have to buy, but it affected him indirectly _because_ his partner was going to have to buy. "Callen, I'm asking Hetty for a new partner." Sam told him, "I can't have you watching my back if you are being taken out within five minutes is how the situation is going to turn out. Seriously G, you know better than to turn your back on Kensi Blye."

"In my defence, Kensi wasn't there when we started. Besides, you as well as I know how predictable Kensi can get when it comes to paintballing. She claims her father taught her well, but really – she just hangs on to what she wants to. She's quite stubborn." G's voice came smoothly from the earpiece, and despite the angry Sam felt to his partner he had to agree. Kensi Blye was the most stubborn girl he had to work with, he was quite thankful that she was the _only_ girl he really had to work with. There was Hetty and Nell, but they were less stubborn and actually listened. When Kensi wanted something, she wanted it bad and would stop at nothing until she got it.

Eric was still muttering angrily beside Sam, and Sam couldn't help but smirk at the lanky blonde. "Eric, you should have known better to come after me with a paintball gun. You're lucky I just shot you, and I didn't actually tackle you to the ground." It wasn't a reassuring thought for Eric. Not in the slightest, and it didn't help his wounded pride. "At least _I_ shot you. Nell hit me. How do you think that makes me feel? It would have been better if Deeks had shot me, but I was shot by Nell. _Nell_. Of all people, the smallest one on our team takes the ex-SEAL down. I'm _never_ going to live this one down." Sam looked over at Eric and saw that the blonde was glaring at him. "What?"

"That's my partner you're talking about. I mean, you probably wouldn't classify us as partners because we're not out in the field watching each other's backs, but in Ops we're a team. Sometimes I don't know if I would be able to help you guys solve a case if Nell wasn't there. She gives me a new perspective." It wasn't like Eric to lash out at someone, especially someone who was Sam. He was pissed though. Pissed that he had lost. Pissed that he wasn't going to see his girlfriend for a couple of weeks – which really wasn't the point of his anger right now, but he was still pissed. He was pissed that his partner was now out there fending for himself, and he felt that he should be out there helping Nell win. If it came down to it – Eric would have most certainly let Nell win the competition. He had to admit – it was nice having his best friend out on the field for the first time. He figured this was how Kensi felt, more or less. He had talked to her a couple of times, and every time he talked to her he could see her frustration at Deeks growing. Maybe it was just her missing him, because while Eric wasn't exactly the guy people came to talk to about relationships or love, he was pretty observant. Maybe that had something to do with Nate being one of his close friends, but it didn't matter. What mattered was that Nell and Deeks had finally been coerced into coming to the team training exercise, and Eric couldn't have been more thrilled. Except now he was stuck in the tower, observing. There was nothing more he wanted to do then to give Nell a helping hand, even though he knew she could hold her own against Deeks and Kensi. He was concerned, wasn't that how partners were supposed to act?

Sam pushed open the door to the 'home base', and took his goggles off from around his neck. "You should show that side more often Eric. It's touching." Hetty frowned at Sam's comment, causing Sam to give a shrug as an apology towards Eric. The blonde was ignoring him now, and had gone to the computer that sat in the corner.

He touched the screen and enlarged the general area where a dot sat blinking. It was labelled "KB", which could only stand for Kensi Blye. Another dot was moving around near it, but that wasn't what caught Eric's attention. "Where the hell is she?" He asked, turning to the group behind him. Hetty moved closer for a better inspection, as did Sam who had stripped off his paintballing gear and had hung it up on the hooks by the door. Callen was the only one of the group who was hanging back, leaning against the wall as casual as he could.

After a quick inspection of the screen, Hetty knew exactly what Callen and Kensi had done. She turned to Callen, "Mister Callen, I believe you just gave Miss Blye and Mister Deeks an unfair advantage against Miss Jones."

Eric groaned beside her, "really? That's my partner! She has no idea what she's doing out there, and now the last remaining pair is going to take her down. I call rematch!"

Callen shook his head at Eric, "hey! Don't give up on her now. She may just turn around and win the –" He stopped suddenly as he saw Nell's blinking light hover next to Deeks', before the dot covered the dot that belonged to Deeks. "Well, that doesn't look good." The rest of the team turned back to the screen and simultaneously the three of them cocked their heads to the right before Eric and Sam began betting.

"Thirty bucks says Nell surprised Deeks and now he's out of the game." Eric told Sam confidently.

"No way. Deeks wouldn't let her sneak up on him, he's got it." It was rare to see Sam side with Deeks. He was the one person out of all of them who managed to get that irritated with the shaggy blonde, and it was rare to see the two of them getting along. "I'm in for thirty as well." The two turned to Callen, "Well?" Sam questioned, "where's your money G?" He paused for a moment, "or maybe we shouldn't let you play the betting game. You already owe us drinks; you really want to be down thirty more dollars?"

Callen thought about it for a moment. He knew that Deeks was a skilled marksman, and that he reacted well in surprise situations. However, he had a soft spot for the redhead and if he knew Nell – there was a fighting chance that Nell got out of this on top. He closed his eyes, and when he opened them he had a decision. "My money's on Nell. Deeks is good, but there's no way he shot Nell out of pure spite. She had to have surprised him." Callen turned to their Operational Manager, "What about you Hetty? Give us your opinion."

Hetty turned her steely gaze to Callen, "I do not bet Mister Callen." She moved passed him towards the stairwell that led up to the optical part of the tower, "but if I did – I should have to take sides with Mister Hanna. I would hope that Mister Deeks would react well in a situation like this, or my judgement of character is certainly failing." With that their fearless leader disappeared onto the top of the structure, leaving the remainder of the team wondering what the conclusion was.

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><p><strong>AN; So it definitely didn't turn out the way I wanted it to – hopefully before the night is done I'll have another chapter up – and it might just be the last chapter, unless I decide that there's going to be one more where they go out and knock back a few beers ****and then Kensi goes home with Deeks****, sadly I'm just kidding about that last part. I can't make this anymore AU then it already is. I mean, c'mon – you really think this happens? Probably not. Anyways, REVIEW! LEAVE COMMENTS! I will love you forever. I do realise this is not my finest chapter, but maybe your reviews will give me the inspiration that I desire!**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N; I hope you have all read the preview for the next story I'm going to write. It takes place after their little trip to Prague, and it's still slightly AU. I just wanted to dedicate this chapter to all of you who have read and reviewed the past seven chapters. It means a lot that people are reading this little piece of fiction, and it's nice to know that I'm not the only one out there who is incredibly attached to some of these characters. This chapter is slightly depressing towards the middle of it, and needless to say I'll probably get some angry remarks about certain things that I will not spoil you on. Moving on – read and review, they mean so much to me!(:**

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><p>It wasn't until there were only three of them did Deeks really start to feel the heat. Actually, it was more like two now that Nell was the last person the team of Kensi and Deeks had to take out. Did last man standing really count when it was down to two partners? Deeks hoped not, because while he wanted to win last man standing – he was pretty convinced that he wasn't going to be able to shoot Kensi. She was his partner after all, and while it was one thing to point your gun at your team mates, it was another to point your gun at your partner. He wouldn't do it. He thought that should score him some points with Kensi – but as he thought about it a little more he realized it wasn't about having Kensi know that he had her back, because he did. No, it was about <em>him<em> knowing that he had her back. Deeks stopped walking for a moment. Things were getting a more _complicated_ in Deeks' head than he wanted, so he decided to shove his worried out of the way and scanned the area that he was standing in. He wasn't sure how far away from the clearing he was, but he knew that if he listened carefully he could hear the murmurs of Eric and Sam returning to the optical tower. Wherever that was. Of course, he couldn't make out what they were saying – but he was beginning to realize that the arena was a lot smaller than Hetty had made it out to be. A lot smaller. The entire arena was so compact that Deeks was fairly certain he had wandered down this path a few times without realizing it. It was honestly beginning to annoy him – which took a lot considering there was rarely anything that annoyed Deeks.

"Look Fern," he began using the pet name he had given her, the one that annoyed her the most, "I don't know what you've got planned – but really, is hiding away from me the best idea you've had? We're partners; we're supposed to be watching each other's backs!" There was no answer, and Deeks figured that while he annoyed Kensi the majority of the time, there was no way she'd leave him hanging. "Kensi?" He stopped walking again and listened intently, trying to hear any sound that would give him an indication of where his partner was hiding. "'Come and find me,'" he mimicked Kensi's voice, "as if that's going to be the easiest thing in the world." Deeks took a deep breath before continuing down the path, "Kensi!" He stopped being quiet about four feet back, but he's got faith that Nell will most likely miss him. Unless Nell's suddenly developed the ability of appearing behind him without making a sound, Deeks is sure he'll be okay. For the time being at least. He has no idea what Hetty will do if they don't take down the last remaining team member. "Yeah, no problem. I totally have an idea of where to look, because I've totally been here before. I think I need a change in partners." There's still no answer, and Deeks is fairly certain she's either turned her earpiece off somehow, or she's ignoring him completely. Deeks knows it's going to be the last one. It's just something Kensi will do to him on a regular basis. He's never really understood why – he's not _that_ annoying. "Yep, that's it I'm putting in a transfer from this unit. I need a new partner."

There's a crackle in his own earpiece before laughing, "Deeks. You don't even work with us. You're just the liaison." Not much could knock Deeks off his game, but it was comments like that that actually hurt him. He had always been a little insecure about his position on the team, and whenever Callen or Sam made cracks about him – he tried his best to appear nonchalant and knock it back with a laugh as if it didn't hurt him – but when Kensi made comments, it stung. Weren't partners supposed to have each other's backs? Sure, there was always going to be teasing between the pair – but it wasn't a joking matter to Deeks about his position. He probably should have told the team that it bugged him, but he was Marty Deeks – the laidback one in all of this. You had Kensi, your fierce and completely badass female agent. G Callen, the mystery man who would stop at nothing to protect his team members. Sam Hanna, the one who understood how the Marine mind worked, and the most loyal out of all of them. Then there was Deeks. He was a good cop, but nothing more. He liked to think that he was a good NCIS agent, but the truth was he didn't really work for the NCIS and he wasn't even an agent. So yeah, that little jab on where he stood? It hurt.

He had lost concentration and was now zoned out. That was probably the reason why he had failed to see the tiny redhead come out of the bush next to him. He was unaware of her until Nell touched his arm, and spoke to him softly. "Marty?" Deeks jumped a bit, before fumbling with his gun. Now he was just pissed off at Kensi for distracting him. Only she would be able to poke fun at him where it really hurt. He knew that they didn't talk about their personal feelings a lot, but he had always assumed that Kensi would know the dangerous points and the buttons she shouldn't push. Apparently he had given her too much credit. "Hey, are you okay?" Nell asked, concern wavering in her voice. It was sweet of her. Deeks understood why there was concern. Out of the entire team, excluding Kensi, Deeks would always care for Nell the most. It came with the "newbie" territory. He had taken an instant liking to the lively girl, who looked a lot younger than she actually was. His stance on her looks was that she was wiser beyond her years, kind of like Hetty would have been when she was younger. Deeks had always viewed Nell as the next Hetty, dangerous and precise. It was good. He was a firm believer that one day Nell would end up running the entire OSP center, that was if Hetty ever decided to give up her job and go retire.

Deeks flashed a smile at Nell, but he could see that he wasn't fooling her. "Fine, I'm fine." Nope, there was still that hesitation she had, but thankfully she didn't pursue it. Deeks decided to pursue another topic, "I've been standing there for at least ten minutes, completely zoned out and I'm still in the game. Why?"

Nell returned his gaze with a confused look. There was a complete innocence that surrounded the redhead, one that Deeks was certain he could achieve in looks if he shaved his face but not in attitude like Nell gave off. She was just as complicated to understand as Kensi was, but Deeks felt that he knew more about Nell than he did his own partner. That probably had to do with the fact that Deeks and Nell were a lot closer than anyone knew about. She was like a little sister to him, one that he needed to be fiercely overprotective about, but one that deserved his teasing. Deeks watched out for her, and respected her. When Deeks had first arrived he had been met with some pretty judgemental stares. He was a cop after all. An unwanted and unskilled cop. At least that's how he had envisioned their points of view on himself joining the team. Nell on the other hand had to deal with a team of highly trained operatives, and an excellent tech who didn't need the help that Hetty had insisted on giving him. Deeks had been in that position, and he had gone out of his way to make Nell feel better. There had been moments where they leaned on each other, and there had been quite a few times where Deeks was glad to have Nell Jones in his life – especially when she was the one coming over to his house with a tub of ice cream for them to share. It was like she was the family he had never had the chance to have.

"You could have taken me out of the game, but you haven't. Why?"

"Oh, I – I don't know. You looked upset, and I wasn't really paying attention to what I was doing." She sighed, before kicking the ground and churning up dust. "I'm not cut out for this Marty; I'm just the intelligence analyst. I'm good at my job. I'm good at organizing things. I'm not good at shooting at people."

Deeks lowered himself so that he could look at Nell in the eye, "hey, don't talk like that. You're a great agent, even if you aren't technically labelled as one." He smiled, trying to boost her confidence, "look – you took Sam out and he's a hard enough target as it is. Be proud of yourself Nell Jones, you're fantastic." There was a slight waver on Nell's face and Deeks could see a smile beginning to form. "There, you're fine okay?"

She smiled at him, before turning her head to the side, "okay. Nice pep talk, but why are you zoned out and look like you've just heard the worst thing in your life?" Leave it to Nell to be able to be so stubborn and stay on the same subject. Deeks was so used to having Kensi by his side that after awhile of her trying to get him to spill – she usually just dropped it, but Nell? Nell hated that. She was one of the nosiest people Deeks had ever met, which was amusing considering she was the tiniest and for Deeks it just fit perfectly together. However, her persistence was one of his least favourite things about her because she could get him to talk, whether he wanted to or not. No matter what anyone said, it was all in the face. Nell Jones could take one look at you and you would spill your guts. He was thoroughly convinced that she was the up and coming Hetty.

"It was just a comment that Kensi made, which I'm probably just overreacting about. She didn't mean anything by it." Nell studied Deeks for a moment and realized that whatever comment (and Nell was fairly certain that it had to do something with not being an actual agent) Kensi had just made had been directed straight into Marty Deeks' heart.

"But you're still hurt." She told him point blank, it didn't matter to Nell what Kensi had told Marty – Nell knew that once Kensi and Marty talked about it things would be back to normal between the two, just as they always were – but she also knew that Kensi couldn't see through the joking facade that Marty Deeks put up around her on a regular basis. He was always trying to protect his partner, even from his own feelings and while that could be seen as something to be complimented on – Nell thought it was the most stupid thing ever to come between the pair. She liked talking about her feelings, and she knew that deep down Marty was not the shallow guy that people thought him to be. He was the one person that was usually there to listen to her, and while Eric was her best friend – Marty Deeks was her brother, and sometimes that meant more to her than having a best friend. She kept her private life away from the prying eyes of the team, so not many people knew of the relationship between Marty and herself. They had never made that a well known topic for the rest of the team. Of course, there were those few glances of concern between the two of them when Marty was to be sent into a dangerous assignment – but they went unnoticed by the rest of the team, which suited Nell fine. They kept themselves on a purely professional level at work, but when the night came to an end and one of them was feeling extremely shitty about their day – there was always the late night ice cream sessions with a comedy show. Saturday Night Live had become one of their traditions, and they tried to watch it every Saturday together. It had always been the one thing Nell looked forward to in her week whenever it was going bad. She knew that if her week wasn't going as she had planned, then Saturday would always be there for her to fall back on.

"So, maybe we need a change in the plan?" Deeks picked up interest on what Nell was saying. They had a plan? Since when had _they_ had a plan? He and Kensi had a plan, but he wasn't as willing to partner up with Kensi at the moment. "Maybe we need to take Kensi out of the game, and declare ourselves as last people standing. I think we've deserved that. I mean, they came into this knowing the layout and how the game was normally played. But us? We kind of just were thrown into it." Nell's face had lit up and she began planning with more enthusiasm then when she had started. Deeks couldn't help but smile at the redhead; it was cute how enthusiastic she was about this plan. He found himself nodding along with her plan, taking in the strategy behind it and while he felt a little guilty for going behind his partner's back, he couldn't help but feel a little glad at the chance for payback.

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><p><strong>AN; I do love leaving little author notes at the beginning and the end of my stories. I wanted to mention that while I've told you in earlier chapters that I knew who was going to win it – things have changed, and little Nell Jones has taken control over my story. I blame her. Anyways, I'm slowly falling in love with my Nell Jones/Marty Deeks brother/sister relationship. I really think that they would make amazing siblings because of their status on the team. I mean, Eric isn't an agent – sure, but he's been with the team for a long time, whereas Nell and Deeks are both newcomers so I can see that bond forming between them. While Deeks may think he's looking out for Nell the majority of the time, he's wrong – Nell's looking out for him.**


	9. Chapter 9

Kensi was getting bored. She had been lying on her back in the hideout that she and Callen had built, waiting for Deeks to find it so they could plan the last leg of the competition. It had been at least twenty minutes since she had found it, and had been waiting patiently for her partner to show up – to no avail. Deeks was usually lately, but to run twenty minutes behind schedule? It wasn't like him at all, and Kensi began to wonder if he had sat down and decided that taking a nap was better than winning the competition. Kensi checked her watch; it was a little over three in the afternoon – which meant that they had been out on the paintball course for over six hours, and frankly – Kensi just wanted to be declared the winner already. She deserved this. She hadn't won in a long time, the last three times they had the chance to paintball Sam had won once, while Callen had won twice – before that? Well, that was Kensi's last time winning and that was shortly before Mace had been transferred from OSP. Frankly, Kensi had decided that she was due for a win and she wasn't going to go down without a fight. If only her partner would show up. She stretched out across the wooden boards, knowing she wasn't being very attentive. What did it matter though? If Deeks hadn't found her for twenty minutes, then chances were he was never going to find her. _"Maybe I should actually tell him where I am." _She thought, rolling onto her stomach. She looked over to where she had set her multiple paintball guns and sighed. That would probably be a good idea, if she knew Deeks – and she liked to think that she did – then he was probably wandering around lost in the arena below. He had probably figured out by now that the arena wasn't the largest thing on the Earth and was hopefully circling around trying to find his tracks. But this was Deeks she was thinking about. Deeks, who was probably the worst tracker she had ever seen. Deeks, who absolutely hated going into the desert. Deeks, who had shot a snake, which he claimed was trying to bite off his manhood. Deeks who – she stopped, and pulled herself into an upright position. She needed to stop being so hard on him. If it wasn't for him then she wouldn't have been playing paintball with her friends. He had saved her life, as much as she didn't want to admit that.

Kensi sighed, and her miscoloured eyes surveyed the area that she could see. Her and Callen had built the tree fort high enough so that no one on the ground would notice it – a bit of a problem at this point. Still, she couldn't see her partner as much as she tried. There was no movement of the brush, or any sign of life. The team wouldn't have left her in the arena by herself, would they? She didn't even want to think about it, nor did she want to think about where her partner was or what he was up to – all she wanted was to have Deeks backing her up like he usually did. Maybe that was her problem. She had become too reliant on having Deeks by her side. It was the one thing she had always guarded herself from. Being reliant on other people. That was how much she had put her trust into her partner, it was rare for Kensi to trust anyone as much as she trusted Deeks – and she couldn't help it. She couldn't help but mock him, and try to push him away because Deeks was that sort of person who would keep _trying_ and _trying_ to worm his way into your heart. But he already had. That had been her mistake. Letting him into her life like that. Not even Callen or Sam were as close to her as Deeks was, and she had known them longer. Of course, Nate was always going to be one her closest friends and Nate was the one who knew pretty much all there was to know about Kensi – but that had been an accident. Kensi frowned as she found herself pouting slightly. Was she pouting because her partner wasn't here? Or because she missed Nate? Both seemed pretty plausible at the moment since they were both invading her thoughts. _"Come on Deeks. How hard is it to find this place? It's not the most concealed hideout I've ever hidden in."_

As she thought that, Deeks' voice came over the earpiece and Kensi smiled. There was the familiar voice she had been waiting for – question was: where the hell was he? She opened her mouth to reply to him, her eyes still seeking the familiar blonde hair, but Deeks kept talking. She wasn't paying much attention to what he was saying until she heard the change in his tone, and Kensi's eyebrows knit together as she heard her partner say that he wanted a transfer. The lack in listening she had prior to this was what confused her, and she began to wonder if he was being serious. He couldn't have been. Was he joking? The tone of his voice suggested one thing, but the knowledge of Kensi had of Deeks suggested another. He wasn't being serious. He couldn't have been. They had been getting along finally; their last argument had been miniscule. Kensi was a little hurt, and she pulled herself behind her wall again and dug her hole deep when she replied that he didn't belong. She regretted it immediately. Of course she did. She wasn't heartless. She could be stuck up when she _needed_ to be, but she wasn't a heartless bitch – which is what she had just appeared to be. So why didn't she apologize right away? Probably because pushing people away was what Kensi Blye did best. She hadn't been as close to anyone since her father was killed, except Nate. Nate was a different story though; he had been the one to comfort her when they discovered Dom had been kidnapped. He was the one who had researched her father's death for her. He had always been there, and so yes – Kensi trusted him, not so much with her life but with her secrets. They were close. They were always going to be close. Kensi wrote to Nate almost weekly, and he replied to her the same. When both found the time – they would Facetime each other, but that wasn't often – just enough to let Kensi know that her closest friend was safe.

She didn't think of the complication her words would have on Deeks and her's partnership. Sometimes Kensi spoke without thinking. She had been told that by her friends back when she was in high school, and it still hadn't change. Of course, not thinking had messed up her first undercover operation and Kensi had learnt how to control her flow of words – but when she relaxed around certain people, words flowed out that she really didn't mean. "Come on Deeks." She muttered to herself, trying to get a response back from her partner. There was only silence, and she leant against the back of the tree fort – still regretting her words, even though she didn't know how to apologize for them. Apologizing was not one of Kensi's strong suits. It never was going to be – there was rarely anything Kensi had to apologize for, and yet everything she had to apologize for recently had to do with Deeks. _He could make her so frustrated sometimes_. It was then the words came out, and she said things that were probably categorized as things you couldn't take back once they were said. "Deeks?" Still no answer. Saying those two simple words would have probably made a difference, but she was a little angry at him for making the comment about wanting a new partner. That had been a little uncalled for, and as much as Kensi had tried to not let it affect her – it did.

Deeks however, had bounced back from Kensi's little comment. Of course, he was still pretty mad at her for it, but he had a paintball competition to win and he felt that while luck wasn't on his side – he still had a decent chance of getting through it without getting shot. Even if it meant taking Nell out first, not that he really wanted to, but he wasn't exactly opposed to it as he was opposed to shooting his partner. Nell's plan had been a mischievous one, and Deeks wondered why Hetty didn't let Nell into the field more often. Her improvising skills were brilliant, and Deeks couldn't help but think if they were better than his. He was good with improvising a couple's cover story, but Nell? Nell had covered 360 degree angles with her plan. She had a backup plan for her backup plan. He was kind of amazed. He knew everyone on the team underestimated Nell, but he hadn't realized just how much _he_ had underestimated her. "You are a genius. I could kiss you." Nell's face reddened, but she carried on in her usual fashion trying to seem unfazed by Deeks. The plan was simple, Deeks would be used as a distraction – one that would require him to lure Kensi out and lie to her, making it seem like everything was okay between them. They really weren't good though. Nell knew that, and yet it was one of the crucial parts of the plan. After Kensi's focus was entirely on Deeks, Nell would nail her in the back which would effectively take her out of the game. They hadn't thought passed that part, but Nell knew that if Plan A failed, then they would have to carry out Plan B. Only, Plan B was far less effective than Plan A.

Now it was time to put their plan into motion. With a nod from Nell, Deeks turned on the microphone that would let him talk to Kensi. "Sorry Kens, something was going on with the feed through the piece." He paused for a second, his baby blues flickered to her hazel ones. Her's were flickering dangerously, and Deeks could tell that the woman he viewed as a younger sister was having too much fun with this – it was slightly terrifying. "Also, you've won the best hiding spot award – now get down to the level of the normal people." It was easy for him to not show his anger through his words. Deeks did what he did best, shoved whatever that was bothering him to the back of his mind and hope that it would be forgotten. He gestured for Nell to follow him as Kensi rattled off general directions in his ear. It was amazing that she hadn't suspected anything; then again Deeks knew that she had no idea who was with him as they moved towards the general area where Kensi was to meet them. Nell had left the main trail that Deeks was walking on, his paintball gun resting between his shoulder blades, his hand on his ear making sure that he could respond to his partner if he needed to. "Princess, I'm here." He sang-songed and leaned casually against a tree – his arms crossed, goggles tugged down around his neck. "Question is; where are you?"

He heard Kensi giggle from above him, and Deeks looked up. "What the hell are you doing up there? Kensi, are you seriously in a tree?" Her familiar figure disappeared from view as she moved down the ladder quickly, he hadn't realized that he was so close to her when he had the run in with Nell – but then again, he hadn't really expected her to be in a tree.

"It's not a tree, Deeks. It's a _tree fort_." She stressed the last two words as if they were the most important in the sentence. In a way, Deeks supposed they were considering that was the proper name of the platform she had been on. His eyes moved over her shoulder as he saw the littlest color of red in between the green. Sure enough, Nell had positioned herself in a decent place in order to nail Kensi but she wasn't going to be able to move quickly enough without Kensi noticing. Deeks' head whirled trying to find a solution to their problem, but there was nothing he could that wouldn't make Kensi suspicious.

He grinned at his partner, "whatever. We all know that it's just a platform above the trees – however, we've got a more concerning issue. What are we going to do about Nell?" His eyes flickered back to Nell, who was creeping alongside the base of the tree fort. Nell took a step forward, but she had misjudged the distance between her and the twig in front of her causing a cracking sound. That wasn't a natural thing in the arena, and Kensi whirled around only to come face to face with Nell.

"Deeks!" Of course he would be the one she blamed for this. What was her other solution? There was only the two of them. Deeks sighed inwardly before pulling the gun over his shoulder, hoping that Nell would hit Kensi instead of Deeks having to. In the time Kensi began to raise the gun, and Nell scrambled to get her gun in position – Deeks had already pointed and aimed the gun at Kensi's back before pulling the trigger – placing two well aimed shots on her NCIS vest. Kensi spun around, her eyes had narrowed and Deeks could see the angry and betrayal in her eyes. "What. The. Hell." She pronounced each word separately as she moved towards Deeks threateningly. He began to back up, half smiling – half worrying that he was going to run into a tree. "You realize that you've taken your partner out of the game. Your partner!" She was practically screeching by the time Nell had composed herself and nailed Kensi a couple more times in the back. Now Kensi didn't have just two shots symbolizing her defeat on the exercise, she had a few more to go with it. She didn't bother turning back to Nell, but kept advancing on her partner – raising her gun and nailing Deeks with a couple of paintballs. Kensi stopped, and placed her hands on her hips defiantly.

A crackle came through Deeks' earpiece, but as he turned to look at his partner and Nell – he could see that Hetty was talking into all of their's. "Mister Deeks, and Miss Jones – I must congratulate you on your advancement to the final two. However, one of you may only be last person standing. Miss Blye, if you will join us in the tower – that would be lovely."

Deeks wasn't expecting Nell to reply to Hetty, but as he glanced at the little redhead he realized that he wasn't going to win the competition. Kensi was still glowering and was about to make a move towards the path that would leave her tower when Nell aimed her gun at Deeks and shot, "there's no need to delay this any longer." Deeks stared at her, before glancing down at his vest – and then he sighed. Of course she would betray them all in the end. This only enforced the fact that Deeks was convinced Nell had secret training from Hetty and that the entire innocence of her appearance was fake. "Sorry Marty." Nell said with a quick smile, it didn't really bother Deeks that Nell had won – at least one of them was victorious and had beat out everyone who had done the exercise previously. Nell approached him and laid a comforting hand on his arm, and he grinned down at her.

"No big deal. Congratulations Nell." He said with a chuckle, and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "You did great." He separated from her quickly as Kensi approached the other female on the team, before he could hear what Kensi had to say he walked quickly back to the main entrance to the arena. He wasn't surprised to see Sam, Callen, Eric and Hetty already waiting for them to return.

"Looks like Nell Jones has a bit of a mischievous streak in her." Callen teased Deeks as the detective entered the building, "she got you good man."

"I wasn't really expecting that." Deeks agreed before handing the earpiece back to Hetty, "drinks on Callen tonight eh?" He flashed a quick grin at the team leader, receiving an eye roll in return. "I'll meet up with you guys later; I've got some errands to run before we celebrate Nell's victory." He was still pretty upset over Kensi's comments, and while he knew the rest of the team had accepted him finally – there was still that lingering feeling that he was an outsider, and not welcomed – even though he knew that to be completely unreasonable.

As Deeks pushed open the door and disappeared into the midday sun, Callen followed the detective with his eyes. He turned to Hetty after a moment's thought, "something's pushed his buttons." As he watched the elder woman, he saw that she had come to the same conclusion – if she hadn't already beaten him to it. Something was definitely off about Deeks, and it had definitely happened inside the course. His thoughts were interrupted by Nell and Kensi's appearance. The taller brunette was following Nell in, and she looked around – her eyes searching for her partner.

"Hey, where's Deeks?" She asked, looking at Callen expectantly for an answer. If anyone was to have one, it would be him or Hetty – but since she was closer to Callen then she was to Hetty, she looked towards him first. He didn't answer her, but indicated he had no idea with his shoulders. His attention was no longer on the tension between the two partners but Nell.

"Alright, pay up!" Eric called, "Nell won – that means Sam, you owe us some money. We'll split it. Fifteen and fifteen."

Sam shook his head, "that deal was for the showdown between Deeks and Nell – not who would come out on top."

"Guys, where the hell is Deeks?" Kensi's voice had risen over top of the squabbling between Sam and Eric, and Nell sighed before crossing her arms over her chest.

"He said he'd meet us later, Kens. It's not a big deal. He's probably got some work to do at LAPD. You do realize that he's got more on his plate then we do on ours. Not only does he have NCIS work to do, but he's got LAPD files to fill out and reports to write. He's a busy man." G placed an arm around Kensi's shoulder, and grinned at her.

"Right. Not a big deal. We'll see him later." She mumbled, she couldn't help but feel miserable inside. Kensi had an inkling of a feeling that she was to blame for Deeks' sudden disappearance. Not that the team would know that – however, a quick glance at Nell made Kensi realize that maybe the winner knew more than she was letting on. Nell's attention was quickly averted to Callen and Eric though and it left Kensi to think about what she had done. One thing was for certain; she had royally screwed up this time.

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><p><strong>AN; Dun, dun dun. ****Basically, this is the end of my entire little fic. The ending definitely didn't turn out the way I wanted it to – mainly because Kensi was being a little harder to deal with than I imaged her to be – so that was bothering me, and Nell decided to take over the last two chapters with her awesomeness. Originally Kensi was supposed to win, and there was supposed to be a little mini argument between her and Deeks before she fake shot at him – but realized her safety wasn't on and actually did shoot him, making her the winner – but that didn't happen. I figure this way if I don't end it on a happy note, I'll be able to squeeze in a lot more Densi then I had thought and now you'll be able to see Nell a little inebriated because Eric and Callen keep giving her drinks. Also, it'll make this fic into ten chapters instead of nine which is nice – even chapters are always good. That chapter will most likely be written tomorrow or Sunday – but it might take me a couple of days. Leave some comments in the meantime, what you liked – what you didn't like – what should have happened, I'm really up for anything and until the next update – keeping waiting(:**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N; My last chapter in this little fun instalment. I hope that you've all enjoyed it. It was fun to write, and honestly it got me back to writing. This is honestly the first piece of writing I've done in a really long time – so it was nice to have an audience to write for. Thank you all, and I hope that you stick around to read my next piece of fiction: Operation: Undercover which is going to be pretty interesting. I promise that everything that went wrong in the last two chapters is going to be resolved in this one. Trust me, I can't keep Deeks and Kensi mad at each other – it really doesn't work well in my entirely focussed Densi shipper heart. They are important and of course, absolutely beautiful together – so things will be good between them. Read and review, my lovely people. Thank you to all who have subscribed to me and my story – whether it was you just marking this story or me as a favourite, or putting me on your alerts – it's an amazing feeling to know that people are actually reading what you write. So thank you. Thank you.**

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><p>It was past nine forty by the time Deeks showed up at the bar. After the exercise that Hetty had put the team through, Deeks had left the building and wandered down the road for a bit considering his car was still parked at Mission. He had known that he would get it back later and at the time the best option was just to wander down the road. Kensi had driven him to the arena and since he wasn't really in a happy place when it came to his partner, he had felt that it was best for him not to get into the car with her. Walking down the road was the only alternative he had, or he could have hail a cab – but seeing as his wallet had been in Kensi's car, there was another problem. He hadn't really thought about what would happen if someone decided to hit him with a car and he wound up at the hospital without any form of ID. He had rather hoped that if someone was to come in from the LAPD that they would have recognized him and could alert NCIS, and his police chief at the LAPD precinct. Thankfully, the road that took him to the arena was practically deserted so the threat of being hit by the car hadn't been one of the things that had been occupying his mind. He had made it back to his apartment in one piece, and had decided to cool his thoughts off by taking a midday surf. Being on the water was the one place where Deeks felt like he belonged. He felt like he could do anything, like he was invincible. This was the cause of growing up in Los Angeles for his whole life – he loved the water, he loved being near the water. He didn't even live directly downtown. He had his parents to thank for that though, they had been Los Angeles natives – and the house that they had was so close to the water, that Marty Deeks was practically raised as a fish.<p>

After that he had showered, trying to get the smell of sweat and saltwater out of his hair and had walked to the coffee shop that was near his house. He didn't believe in switching his routine, he knew that Kensi took a different road home every night and that Sam used four different coffee shops – but Deeks wasn't like them. He had never felt threatened enough to switch his routine, and half the time it didn't even matter because he was rarely home. If he wasn't working a mission with the NCIS team, he was most likely undercover with the LAPD. It seemed like his life revolved around his work, but it was the one way Deeks could escape his past and delay his thought of his current life. If his mother had been around to see him now … well, Deeks knew that she would be thoroughly unimpressed by him. His mother had always wanted the best for her son, and while Deeks thought he had the golden life right now – he knew that she would have given him a head smack just to get him to see straight. Until roughly around six-thirty, Deeks stood on the balcony his apartment had drinking his coffee and watching the sunset. Dusk was his favourite time of the day – he had never been particularly good at awakening early, and the only way to get Marty Deeks out of bed that early was to announce that the surf was good. He was a lot calmer than he had been about three hours ago, which was good. Not only good for him, but good for the rest of the team – they had never seen Deeks, excluding the time where Jess Traynor was killed, angry or pissed off at the world. He normally maintained a calm composure, but hidden beneath that wall of jokes and grins was a man who had a lot of pent up rage. It hadn't surfaced for a long time, but Deeks knew that if he was pushed over the edge that he could potentially lose it.

Passed nine forty by the time Deeks showed up at the bar to face the rest of his team. He wasn't humiliated at the lost; in fact he was pretty proud of Nell – who had proved herself to be an exemplary agent. Kensi was the first to see her partner walk in, but he avoided her eyes altogether – proving to her that there was something off between them, something that had to do with her comment. Nell greeted him happily, and Deeks knew immediately that she had knocked down a couple of drinks already. Moving past the space next to Kensi, he bumped Nell lightly so she would make room. The team shuffled over in the booth, leaving Kensi and Deeks sitting across from one another – but the latter was still avoiding her gaze. The motion hadn't gone unnoticed by Callen or Sam, and they looked at each other questioningly. Nell was chattering away, before she turned to Deeks. "You forgot this in Kensi's car." Her pronunciation was quite good considering she wasn't completely sober. She placed his wallet on the table, and smiled at him. Deeks chuckled before adjusting himself so he could shove his wallet into his pocket.

"Thanks Nell." His eyes flickered involuntarily to Kensi who was pouting slightly, even though she claimed that her face did not know how to pout.

Callen gestured for the waitress to bring them another round of drinks, and leaned back in the booth's seat, his left arm rising so that it wrapped around the back of where Nell was sitting. "That was a pretty decent paintball match," he received a glare from Sam, "what?"

"G, you must be borderline drunk. You realize that you're paying for these." Sam looked like he wanted to give his partner a head slap, but he refrained and took a drink of his drink, which to Deeks looked like water. "That was the worst paintball match we've ever been a part of. Eric even beat you."

"Hey!" Eric pushed his glasses onto the bridge of his nose again; he had been distracted by his phone which was going off every three seconds. "I object to that, I happen to be pretty decent for someone who spends his time in _Ops_."

Deeks had a laugh at that. It was true, Eric did play a mean game of paintball especially since the field training he had was basically from the Ops center playing on Call of Duty. It was interesting to see the different side of the technical genius, Eric and Deeks weren't particularly close mainly because they both saw different sides of the coin, but Deeks was beginning to realize that if he was to get to know Eric then they'd probably get along pretty well. Beside him, Nell was bouncing around. "I think _I_ did amazing. I _won_ it, if you're all forgetting about that _excruciatingly _important detail." The appearance of the waitress paused any of their responses, and Deeks moved Nell's drink further to the middle of the table – away from the redhead who had apparently gotten too much to drink.

"It's only ten, and Nell's almost drunk. What were you guys giving her?" Deeks surveyed the team, and they all exchanged sheepish glances. Callen and Eric certainly looked the guiltiest and Deeks figured that they had the biggest part in this.

"I'm sitting right here! It's not _that_ bad. I mean, _I_ am not that bad. If you would get out of the booth I could show you that I can walk perfectly fine." She giggled a little, and Deeks shook his head before taking a drink of his own beer. The cool liquid refreshed him, and if anything made him focus a little more. "Perfect however, is not what your relationship with Kensi is at the moment." Nell giggled again, before turning her large hazel eyes onto Deeks. "You two squabble a lot, you do realize this right?" She looked at Callen for confirmation, "I'm not wrong am I?" She had definitely created an awkward moment between the sober team members. "G, c'mon. Don't leave me hanging." Deeks took another sip of his drink, and avoided Kensi's gaze completely. Nell was the only one who knew what had gone down between the two on the comm. links, well – Deeks wouldn't have been surprised if Hetty knew about it, then again Hetty knew everything. "You should really apologize. It was quite rude of you." Nell told Kensi point blank.

Eric coughed; knowing things were just going to go downhill from here and started his bail out process. "Look, guys. It's been fun, but I think I'm just gonna head home and nurse my wounded pride."

Sam chuckled, "more like Skype with your girlfriend. Can't stay away from each other can you?"

Eric shrugged, "what can I say? You're all just jealous that I've got someone to go home to."

Kensi had been unusually quiet, but at this she couldn't help but point out that technically Eric wasn't going home to Abby considering she was across the entire country. She had received a well earned glare from Eric before he said his goodbyes and left for the night. It was still early enough that the rest of the team didn't really feel like leaving, so they began drinking quietly. Deeks could still feel the uncomfortable aura that had settled over the NCIS team. Callen was tapping the wooden part of the booth with his fingers, and Deeks could see Kensi eyeing him with a slight fire in her eyes. He wasn't sure if Callen knew that the tapping was beginning to annoy Kensi, but then again Deeks knew Kensi better than Callen – and could simply just tell that it was bothering her.

"Why are things so quiet now?" Nell asked, her head swivelling between Deeks and Callen. Her lips formed an 'O' shaped as she realized what she had said, "oops. Now I've made things awkward." Was there a time limit on how long Deeks had to stay here for? He had shown up, got a few laughs in and now he was thinking that it was time to go.

It went silent for a few minutes as the remaining team members sat and finished their drinks. Finally, Sam broke the silence, "I should probably go too. It's going to be an … uh ... early morning tomorrow. A lot of paperwork to finish up … you know." He finished lamely, and nudged Kensi to move out of the booth. Sam had figured that the night was going to go more smoothly than this, and as he glanced at his wrist he realized that it was only a little after eleven. "G, you coming? Your car is still at the Mission." Callen nodded, and looked down at Nell who was watching everyone wide eyed.

"Yeah, I'm coming. Nell? Nell?" He nudged her to get her attention back onto him, "I'm going to give you a lift home, alright?"

She shook her head, "it's fine, G. Really! Marty will give me a ride home, right?" Nell turned her head back to Deeks and smiled.

Callen sighed, this wasn't going to be as easy as he had originally thought. "Nell, I think it's best that you leave Deeks alone for a bit. I think him and Kensi need to talk, _alone._" He looked pointedly at the junior members of his team, and both Kensi and Deeks realized that it wasn't a suggestion – it was a command. Deeks moved out of the booth as well, in order to let Callen and Nell out. Nell stumbled a little as her feet touched the floor and Deeks reached out to steady his friend.

"Careful Nell." He murmured, setting a steady hand on her back to make sure she didn't fall again. Callen slid out easily beside her before nodding at Deeks.

"Thanks man, I've got it from here. Nell," he touched her arm lightly, "Nell, focus!" She beamed at him, before blinking a few times. Callen shook his head wearily, before replacing Deeks' steady hand on Nell's back with his own.

"G, I want to stay! I want to see what she says!" Nell whined, turning around so she was looking up at Callen. "Please?" Deeks could see that she was using her best pouting face, but whether it was going to crack Callen was what Deeks was looking for. Callen shook his head, which caused Nell to pout a little more. "Please? Please? With a cherry on top! It'll be great, and we could get more drinks. Ooh. We could go to a karaoke bar. Can we go to a karaoke bar?"

"Yes Nell, we can go to a karaoke bar." Deeks was fairly certain that Callen would have said anything to get Nell to move out of the way so they could go home. However, he was thankful to the team leader – he didn't need Nell around making things more awkward. He loved the girl with all his heart, but when it came down to it – his personal life and feelings were his own, he didn't need them broadcast everywhere which was exactly what Nell was going to do. He watched as the team leader, his partner and the little redhead left through the doors.

It was then he realized that it was only him and Kensi left, and she was sitting in the booth again, fiddling with the keys to her car. Deeks sat down across from her, staring intently at the drink in front of him. His eyes moved to the cash Callen had laid on the table for the drinks and couldn't help but smile. He may have complained about paying, but Callen was true to the bet – he would always pay up when he had to. Deeks wasn't sure how long they sat there in silence, but it getting too tense and cold between the partners – and he wasn't exactly sure how long he could keep going without being so close to her and yet not talking _to_ her. They had days where they were mad at each other. There were days where they would fight and bicker nonstop all day. But Deeks had never encountered a day like this one. He ran a hand through his hair, something he did when he was nervous or worried. Both emotions applied here. He was worried that Kensi was actually pissed off at him for ignoring her, and he was nervous that she would perform one of her specialties of kicking him in the nom de plumes. He wasn't waiting around for that. He nodded his thanks to the waitress who had come by to clean up their glasses, and pulled his leather jacket onto his shoulders before passing Kensi without a second glance.

He had made it pretty far out into the parking lot, and was right beside Kensi's car when Deeks heard the bar door open behind him and he heard Kensi call his name. "Deeks? Deeks!" She ran to catch up with him; once she reached him she placed a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, Deeks?" Kensi paused, not knowing what she could say to make things good between them again. She knew that she had to apologize for her earlier actions, but the words 'I'm sorry' never came easily for Kensi Blye. This was Deeks she was trying to talk to though, her partner – the one that watched her back on every case they worked through – the one who had risked his life more times than she could count to save her own. She owed him so much, but she knew that paying back that debt that had been established between them wasn't going to be easily repaid. "Look, I …" She trailed off, and he turned to her – the blue in his eyes flickered from the moon, and she could almost see her own reflection in his gaze. It was a little distracting. The close proximity was distracting her from her words, and she struggled to find the right words that would hopefully make this better. "I – I'm sorry for my comment earlier." The words came out easier than Kensi thought they would, "you caught me off guard, that's all. I know it's my fault, but … I'm sorry."

Deeks wasn't entirely sure what he should say next, but he knew that he had to get something off of his chest. "Kensi, I know you didn't mean it – but I'm not going to stand here and tell you that it didn't hurt, because it did. I know I'm not the partner you want, and I'm probably not the easiest guy to put up with most of the time, and I make your life pretty difficult – but I'm the only partner you've got, and sometimes I feel like that isn't enough. I'm not an agent, and technically I'm not even a part of this team. Frankly, I don't know what Hetty's got planned for me, and I'm not even sure I want to know. All I know is that I care about you, and there's really no one else I'd rather have watching my back."

She was a little taken back; out of all the words in the world she hadn't been expecting Marty Deeks to say those ones. "Deeks, that's the problem. You are the partner I want. Look, I've had a hard enough time keeping my partners around and you're the one I've had the longest. You're also the first one I've trusted enough, and that scares me. I don't normally trust people as much as I trust you. I don't even trust Callen or Sam as much as I trust you, and that's the problem. I'm not used to this. Usually I push people away, but every time I do that to you – you either keep coming back, or I feel _extremely_ guilty about it." The two stood facing each other; Kensi was almost the same height as her partner due to the heels she had put on for the night. "You're the best partner I've had, alright? You're the partner I can trust the most, and I don't want you to be too close to me, because then I'll lose you. That's always what happens." She was getting frustrated, frustrated at herself for letting herself get so carried away with her feelings and frustrated at Deeks with his stupid face that made her cave every single time. She bit her lip, trying not to let the tears that had formed in her eyes overflow onto her face.

"It's okay, I'm sorry." He reached out and pulled Kensi closer to him, and wrapped his arms around her in a hug. "I didn't mean to upset you, I'm sorry." They stood like that for a few moments, until Kensi had calmed down and had composed herself. She pulled away from him and gave Deeks a half-smile.

"Deeks, if you tell anyone about this sharing circle – I will kill you when you're asleep."

He grinned cockily at her, and before he leant against her car – "Whatever you say Fern, come tomorrow you'll be begging on your knees saying that you didn't mean any of it."

Kensi rolled her eyes at her partner, but she couldn't help but return his grin. "Get in the car, or I'm leaving you here." She knew her partner well enough to know that there was no way his car was actually here. In fact, she was fairly certain that it was still at the Mission and would be there until tomorrow.

"Fine, but remember: I'm the best partner you've ever had."

Things had finally calmed down between the pair, and Deeks knew that sometime in the future when they thought back to it – they'd realize that there was no going back to the lives they had before they met each other. Hetty had been right for recruiting Marty Deeks onto the NCIS team, despite the bickering between the two – both of them knew that they'd trust no one more than they trusted each other, and that was good enough for the both of them.

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><p><strong>AN; This chapter is definitely a Densi chapter. I felt bad for not having enough Densi in my chapters before this, so here's your fix. I thought it was absolutely adorable – to have Kensi be placed in that vulnerable position and for Deeks to actually see that side of her. That story I told you about before, the new one I'm writing – will be a part of this little alternate universe that I've created here. Trust me, there will be a lot more Densi in that story than there was in this one. Trust me. Thank you for reading this – and thank you for reviewing the previous chapters. It's a wonderful feeling, and I love all of you. I hope you'll all anxiously await my next story, and you'll love it as much as I love planning it. Again; thank you.**


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